Dogtown
by manicmethod
Summary: skater!AU. Elsa is a cinematography major, out looking for inspiration for her next film project. Anna is an amateur skateboarder looking to make a short skating video. Maybe the two can help each other out? Non-Incest. [TEMPORARY HIATUS]
1. Do you wanna make a movie?

**So not my first story, by any means, but one of the longest single chapters I've produced. I'm pretty excited about this one guys, and I'll try to regularly update, as opposed to most of my other fic which were abandoned after the first or second chapter...**

**Anyway...not much to warn you about, no triggers or anything. Anna swears a bit but that's it. ELSA'S POV**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

I had to keep myself for screaming at the sheer unfairness of it all.

My cinematography professor sure had it out for me. If it was just a video he wanted us to film, direct, produce and edit I'd have been fine with that. If he'd only given us an actual theme. Technically, I guess, he told us our theme should be "Freedom", but what did I know about freedom? Rich little daddy's girl, never allowed outside to play with the other kids. The only freedom I'd ever been granted was choosing my major, which I was seriously beginning to regret.

It's hard to make it in Hollywood, I know, but I was always surrounded by the bright lights, the studios, the celebrities, and the red carpet, I had been hooked from a young age. When I was five my parents got me one of those kid cameras I took absolutely everywhere, and it was pretty much the best present I'd ever received. Well, until my parents got me my first real heavy-duty camcorder, when I was fourteen.

I've always carried my camcorder, or at least my camera, wherever I went, if I was ever struck by a flash of inspiration.

I could really do with one of those flashes right about now.

How do I even begin to make a film about freedom? I heard some of the others in my class chatting excitedly about it when we finished up. There's probably going to be a lot of patriotism going on. But I can't just do that. I've always prided myself in being original and each new project being even better than the last. So I'd have to go and brainstorm.

* * *

After three fruitless hours in the library accompanied by several cups of coffee, I was still no closer to being able to film. Sure we had the last month of the academic year and the three months of the Summer to make the piece, but that also included the actual filming, figuring out what to do and post-production. Post-production, the last stage, would take the longest, and it was hard to know exactly how long it would take. So the sooner I started the better.

Finally deciding the atmosphere in the library just wasn't 'free' enough, I gathered my things and started my walk back home. I preferred to walk when I could. The (sort-of) fresh air could help me clear my thoughts, and if I ever saw something I wanted to capture on film, I couldn't very well stop an entire bus for it. It gave me time to think. The walk from campus to my apartment took about thirty minutes, and was just about the only exercise I ever got. It was a nice walk too. Pretty deserted and tranquil, but open enough that I didn't have to be afraid of anything bad happening.

That said, there was one part of my walk I didn't particularly enjoy. The walk past the skatepark. During the day, it wasn't so bad. At worst, little twelve and thirteen year olds teasingly cat calling passers-by, myself included. At around sundown, as it was during the summer, it got a whole lot sketchier. There would never be as many people there as there was during the day, and the whole thing was surrounded by a moderately rusted chain-link fence. Along with the graffiti and the fact it could be fairly easy for somebody to be hiding out behind one of those ramp-box things, it just sent out bad vibes.

Tonight however, didn't seem too bad. It was still fairly bright, and I could clearly see two figures, one of them gesturing wildly at various spots in the skatepark, and the other seemed to recoil from her. Given the first figure's body language, I'd say she was angry about something. As I got closer, I picked up on a few snippets of conversation,

"Dammit Kai...keep steady...totally screwed up," the first figure, a girl with fiery red hair tied into two braids hissed.

"I told you I was sorry...Jesus Anna...chill," The other, Kai probably said.

"Well fuck if you can't keep that stupid cam on my board and OFF my butt, I'm just gonna have to get rid of your horny ass and find somebody else to film me skate!" The girl, Anna I assumed, yelled. That last bit made me stop, interested. I waited to the side, behind a tree, just out of sight, but I doubt either of them would have noticed anyway.

"Fine then!" Kai seemed to be getting angry now, probably annoyed he had been found out, "record your own fucking footage," he yelled at her, grabbing his bag and slipping out through a gap in the fence. He walked in my direction but I ducked out of sight as he stomped past. I waited a moment and heard Anna sigh and mutter under her breath for a bit.

"Shit...third guy in two weeks...you know how to pick 'em, Summers." I heard something thunk on the ground, followed by wheels on asphalt. I decided it might be a good idea to come out.

I approached the park slowly. She hadn't noticed me yet. I took a moment to take in what I was seeing. It was...strange. Unlike a lot of the other skaters I'd seen when passing the park, she was completely ignoring any of the ramps or slopes, instead staying in about the only place where there were none of those around, just flat ground. She seemed to stay mostly in one spot, jumping and...grabbing her board? I couldn't really see, given the distance and the increasingly poor light of the setting sun, but I'm sure it would be a lot more impressive up close. I decided to get closer.

I slipped in through the same gap that 'Kai' had left through. Her back was to me, so she didn't see me when I approached. I wasn't really sure what skater etiquette was, so I cleared my throat to get her attention when it looked like she was between tricks. She flinched and her board dropped with a loud resounding crack. She sighed in aggravation, and looked at me over her shoulder. She looked me up and down, sizing me up maybe?

"Um...look, if you ain't here to skate, maybe you should bounce? I'm not in the mood for an audience right now," she told me. Her tone suggested that even if I was there to skate, I should probably 'bounce' anyway.

"Eh...yeah, sorry, I'm not, but-" she raised an eyebrow at me, telling me to get to the point, "but I was walking by and...um...you need to film something?" I managed to spit out, slightly intimidated by her demeanour. Smooth, Elsa.

"Yeah, but uh...what does a poser know about boarding? No offence." She turned to face me fully. She was wearing a red and black flannel shirt, sleeves rolled up, open over a loose black shirt with some logo on it and a pair of baggy ripped jeans. She also had what looked like a pair of bricks for shoes.

"Absolutely nothing. I do however, know a lot about filming and video production. I'd be willing to help you if you help me?" Much better, no stammering. I certainly didn't know what freedom meant, but maybe this girl, Anna had found it riding on her skateboard. It seemed like a thing free people would do. She paused for a moment, gears turning.

"Depends...what'd you want?"

"Exactly what you want. I can make your...skating video, for nothing. All I ask is that you allow me to keep the uncut footage and edit it into a separate, short film. It's for my cinematography class, so you wouldn't have to worry about it getting out to the public and it looking like you plagiarised something."

"So you know nothing about skating...yet you want to make a short film starring an amateur skater?" she looked at me disbelievingly, before bursting into a fit of giggles. Cute. "Aww dude, you got yourself a deal!" she stuck out a fist and looked at me expectantly. I just stared at the offered fist, "you're supposed to...bump it...and blow it up...y'know?" she demonstrated the action using her own two fists, making an soft explosion noise with her mouth as she spread her two fists apart again. She raised her eyebrows. I kept staring.

"Yeah okay we have got to work on that."

After that brief number at the park, we decided to get something to eat at a diner just off campus, and talk about the project. Anna, as she had officially introduced herself, insisted on paying, since I was basically doing her a huge favour for no reason. Far from not having a reason, I needed to ace this project, I simply let her. I make it a policy to never pass up a free meal.

Meal however, may have been the wrong word. Though the diner itself wasn't squalid by any means, the food and presentation left much to be desired. Fries that looked less like they'd been fried in oil and more like they'd been marinated in the stuff, and a suspicious-looking assortment of veg in the burger could really put a person off fatty foods for good, not necessarily a bad thing. Anna however, didn't seem to notice this, happily inhaling her 'meal'. I hadn't even touched my food, sticking to my thankfully ordinary-looking diet coke. Not wanting to appear rude, I picked up one of my fries and started nibbling at it. Surprisingly, it wasn't all that bad, but I made a note not to eat unhealthy food for the next week for the sake of my poor arteries.

When Anna had cleared her plate of food (and thankfully swallowed said food), she began to babble.

"So I'm sorry I was kind of an ass earlier, I mean you never know who you're gonna meet around there and you don't wanna seem weak or easy, y'know? Not that you seem like the kind of person to take advantage of another person, although technically you _did _take advantage of my cameraman-less situation, not that I'm not grateful or anything, 'cause you totally saved my sorry ass, seriously that was like the third guy in a month and they were all just so _creepy, _they kept taking shots of my butt instead of the board and it's probably a good thing you're a girl. Unless you're into girls, that's not a bad thing, I'm into girls too -wait what?"

She finally stopped. I was still in awe for the sheer prowess of this girl's lungs. All of that in one breath. It took me a second to realize what she said.

"Um...I don't know, I haven't really dated anyone..."

"WHAT?" she yelled in shock. The few other patrons in the diner went quiet for a moment, before resuming their own conversations, "you haven't dated? Dude, just look at you! Seriously you're just...wow...shit...no wait, you're not "wow shit" sorry. Like what even is that..." she trailed off for a second with thoughts of wow shit, before snapping back to attention, "so you've never...done the do?" she raised a suggestive eyebrow and winked. I managed to stop her crude gesture involving the index finger of her left and the thumb in an 'o' shape and the pointed index finger of her right hand, my slamming my own hands on top of hers on the table. The contact made my stomach flutter, and I pulled back.

"No I have never "done the do"," I snorted at the expression, "though I should hardly think that's any of your business." She started blushing and looked down at her hands, which were still on the table.

"Right...uh...sorry I just, I don't really have a...what's the word, filter? I don't have a filter, everything kind of just...comes out." I raised my own eyebrow at the choice of words.

"You don't say?"

"Yup...huh? Hey!" she blushed again realising what I was alluding to. I could only laugh, and Anna joined in too. When the giggles faded, she told me a little more about herself. She said if we were going to work together on this, we should at least be somewhat-friends.

She told me she was turning in twenty-one October. She was originally from Kentucky, where her parents still lived, but she came here about a year ago with her best friend Kristoff Bjorgman. They'd both been skating since they could walk, but since, unsurprisingly, the skate scene in Kentucky kind of sucked, they'd moved here, to a warehouse converted into lofts in Hollywood, in order to be closer to Santa Monica, "The Birthplace of Modern Skating" she'd called it. She'd liked the feel of Hollywood, which was her reason for staying a good thirty minute bus journey from Santa Monica itself.

I told her a bit about myself too. I'd lived in Beverly Hills my whole life, my father being CEO of the prestigious "Arendelle Hotels" chain, the first of which had opened near the walk of fame. I was a student, in my second-to-last year of my cinematography major, twenty-three years of age. I lived on my own in an apartment a little closer to campus, though my best friend, Olaf, visited often. I'd wanted to be involved with movies for as long as I could remember, and I wanted to direct or film, or both, I still wasn't entirely sure.

After that, I asked her why she seemed to eager to shoot a video.

"Well...it's a little complicated to explain to somebody who hasn't got a clue about boarding, but I'll try to break it down. So, skateboarding, like any sport, has companies interested in using it to advertise. Unlike other sports though, investors, or "sponsors" are actually legit interested in the sport and are pretty much always skate companies. So, I'm assuming you've at least heard of Tony Hawk, right?" I nodded, "right, well before he retired professional skating, yeah don't look at me like that, he's retired, he originally rode for "Powell-Peralta". So they'd pay him money and skateboard stuff to make their products look good, and they'd kinda nurture budding talent in skaters. You can also get skate shoe sponsors," she stuck out her foot and gestured to her still incredibly uncomfortable-looking lump of a shoe, "but they come later."

"And the point of this is?"

"I'm getting to that. If you want to make it as a skater, you need a sponsor. I want to make it as a skater, but I don't have a sponsor. So, there's a local skate shop, not too far from here actually, "Wandering Oaken's", they do surfboards too down at Venice beach, that's known for lending a little moolah to talented skaters in the area to enter into competitions and get bigger and better sponsors. So here's my plan: Make a video. Send it to Oaken's. Get sponsored by Oaken's. Use Oaken's contacts to get to the Tampa AM contest in December. Win the Tampa AM. Get sponsored by somebody bigger than Oaken's. Simple, right?

"Um...right. Just one question."

"Yes?"

"What's a Tampa-am?"

* * *

Well. It turns out the Tampa AM is only one of the biggest amateur skating contests in the states, and that everyone everywhere has heard of it except me because I'm a poser. After holding myself back from slapping my new "friend" upside the head, I decided it was time to go for the night. Given that it was so dark, Anna offered to walk me home. I told her I didn't need to but she insisted her new "partner-in-perfectly-legal-crime" needed to be safe at all costs. When I asked about her, she laughed and held up her board.

"Haven't you heard? Skateboarders are bad news."

* * *

**I will be posting any thoughts and side notes I have on a chapter on the tumblr I made especially for Elsanna, **_bewareofthefrozenhearts_**_, _under**_ /tagged/storynotes. _**For my main tumblr, go to **_zestywatermelon_**. I take requests, mainly for one shots. So check out my **_storynotes_** tag if you want to know any little bits of trivia and my own thoughts on writing. Let me know what you think.**


	2. Actually a child

**This took longer than expected, I'm sorry. Also, it's very filler-ish. I'm sorry again.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Anna and I decided to meet up at the park after I finished class, just before the sun set. It was better this way anyway, it was too late for the teeny-boppers to be out, but too early for the slightly scarier guys to be skulking around. Anna was already there when I arrived, doing much of the same of what she was doing yesterday. She was wearing a purple flannel today, and a beanie covering most of her hair but the two braids that emerged from under it. I was dressed for work too. A plain black zip-hoodie, jeans and my chucks. Comfortable and casual.

I only brought my normal digital camera today, I just wanted to get a few snaps and to see how filming a skateboard would actually work. I had my camera out, and I was glad I did, because Anna...I'm not sure what she did but it was cool, like a flippy thing? Well anyway, she did a flippy-thing, but I managed to press the shutter as she was in mid-air, so the board was slanted and her feet weren't on it and she was turning in my direction as she did the flip. It looked like a pretty awesome shot. Of course, I'd have to get the expert's opinion.

"Ooh you got a picture? Lemme see!" she snatched the camera from my hand, her fingers brushed mine and left a kind of nice burning sensation. Nice burning? What are you a masochist now Elsa?

"Take it easy..." I mumbled.

"Oh wow this is really good," she breathed, "seriously, I've never seen my one-eighty heelflip look so good!"

"Um...I'm not sure what half of that meant but thank you?" she rolled her eyes at me and scoffed.

"How do you expect to tell me what will look good on tape if you don't even know what any of this stuff is called?"

The rest of the evening was spent sitting to the side and having Anna explain what her usual tricks were. She said that there was two main kinds of skating tricks, the first being vertical, "vert" tricks, the ones done on "half-pipes" or, "those-fucking-huge-crazy-ass-ramps-I-can't-on-because-I'm-scared-shitless-of-heights." She said they were what Tony Hawk was known for. The other was flatland tricks. It involved a lot of "manual tricks" and flips and small grabs. I pretended to follow, but she just laughed and got up to show me. It was actually pretty cool to watch. It was strange that somebody who exuded an air of clumsiness was so nimble. She did a handstand on her board, which I managed to snap a picture of. It came out well like the other...um...heelflip one.

Anna walked me home again that evening. It was still sort of early, and I was enjoying her company. She was currently filling what had the potential to be an awkward silence by gushing over some skater or another called Rodney Mullen.

"...and this dude, he totally revolutionised skating right? And he didn't even mean to do it, it was like, "yup I invented the ollie, no big deal" and-"

"Anna?" I cut her off, for fear she would never stop. We were just outside my apartment, my keys in hand.

"Yeah?" she stopped abruptly, realizing she had been babbling for quite a while now over something I probably didn't care all that much about.

"Do you want to...come inside for a drink or something?" In truth, I really didn't care about what or whoever she was talking about, but her voice provided a nice background hum that I knew I'd long for sitting alone on my sofa. Anna looked absolutely ecstatic.

"Yes! Um...if it's not too much trouble because I know some people would only offer to be polite and you're a really polite person so I-"

"No it's fine," I told her, cutting her off yet again because I knew that we'd end up staying out here for another hour at least if I didn't. I gave her a smile to reassure her, and turned the key in the lock and pushed in the door. I let Anna enter first, and followed in behind. She gave the space a quick once-over and a long, low, impressed whistle.

"Nice digs," she remarked, "seriously, do you want me to take my shoes off or something, 'cause I feel unworthy even to look at your floor," I laughed lightly at that, covering my mouth, "ah! There! You're being all polite and stuff, covering your mouth. And like it's your own house and it's just me, loosen up a bit dude!"

"Dude?"

"Yeah, dude. I call everyone dude."

"But clearly I am not a dude. I am a dude-ess," she scoffed and nudged me with her elbow, before making her way further in to plop herself down on the sofa. She kicked off her shoes, propped her feet up on the coffee table and swung her arms across the back of the seat. Well she sure knew how to make herself feel at home.

"Whatever you say, princess. Get me a sandwich," she demanded cheekily. A bit put off at first, I decided to play along.

"I am not a princess, I am a queen, and as queen, I demand you get your feet off the table and make ME a sandwich," I said, setting myself down gracefully and leaning back against her arm, which was still draped over the back of the sofa. It felt nice- relaxed. It wasn't exactly a position I was often in with other people, not having many friends, and even then not being so comfortable around them. Anna was different though. She just radiated so much positive, laid-back energy I found it hard not to be comfortable around her. It was strange, after only having met her yesterday (but having talked incessantly all night), that things were this way, but I guessed Anna was just that kind of person, somebody you can't help but to open up to.

We sat for a moment, staring at a blank television, each just enjoying the other's company. After a little while, Anna removed herself from the couch and made her way over to the kitchen-area of my apartment. The place was quite open-plan, with the living area, table, kitchen, hallway and door out to the balcony all being in the same space. The only things cut off were the two bedrooms, one of which I used as a study/studio, and the bathroom. I looked back over to her, she seemed to be bent over, looking for something in a cupboard, but I couldn't see exactly what she was up to.

"What are you doing?" Her head reappeared at my question.

"I'm making you a sandwich," she explained, "I'm also looking for the beer."

"Anna you're under-age."

"It's cute how you think that'll stop me." I sighed.

"Fridge, top shelf, grab me one too." She nodded her thanks.

"Stella Artois? Hmm fancy. What do you want on your sandwich? Never mind, there's like nothing in here except cheese."

I watched, still a little stunned, as she set to work. Who just randomly makes a sandwich in somebody else's house? She was cutting the cheese, back to me, when there was a falter in the rhythm of the knife hitting the cutting board. She turned to me, with a grimace, and showed me her bleeding finger. I leapt up from the couch to make my way over to her, stopping to grab my first-aid box from one of the shelves.

"This happens a lot," she admitted as I set to work on her finger. I cleaned it with an alcohol wipe, making her flinch slightly and wrapped it in a bandage. Her hands were surprisingly soft, save for the slightly hardened patches on her fingers and parts of her palm. It took a further moment or two after realizing I was feeling up her hand to figure out that feeling up somebody's hand was more than a little bit odd.

"Maybe we get something less dangerous. Pizza?" I suggested quickly, dropping her hand like it was on fire. She nodded vigorously in agreement, not seeming to have noticed, and pulled her cell out of her back pocket with her good hand. I guessed she ordered pizza a lot, since she didn't have to check the number. Strange, she got away with eating so much junk food, but from what I could tell, she was still fairly slender underneath those baggy clothes.

When the pizza arrived a few minutes later, Anna went to get the beer while I set to work on a film to watch. There was an excited squeal from the direction of the kitchen,

"You have chocolate milk? How did I not notice that? Can I have some?"

"You're such a child."

"Is that a yes?"

"...I guess so. I suppose you want to watch a Disney movie too then?"

"That would actually be awesome."

* * *

After about three weeks of filming, Anna declared the footage sucked. Not because I was bad at my job (she'd said it fearfully), but because all of the local skaters looking for sponsorship from Oaken's were shooting the exact same spots. I could see where she was coming from, especially after she showed me the demo videos of a few other locals. If they weren't taken in the skate park, they were taken on various over-exposed places around Hollywood, like near the walk of fame, or with Gruman's in the background. Anna said we'd either need to get the sickest tricks ever in the local spots, or film somewhere else.

That was why, on my only day off classes during the week, we were headed to Santa Monica, courtesy of Kristoff's pick-up truck, which really had no business in a town like Hollywood. When I'd questioned her about it, she'd only grinned manically and patted whatever was concealed under the tarp in the bed of the truck. I was more than a little suspicious of that tarp. Anna said we'd be headed to the beach, so I was to bring suitable swimming gear. I wasn't too sure exactly how much skating could be done on a beach, but hey, I'm not the expert.

It being a weekday before summer vacation, the beach was fairly empty, save for a few families with young children, and a few older people. I didn't think either demographic would be too appreciative of the rowdy ball of red-headed skating energy that was Anna, and turned to say so to her, when I found her struggling to pull the tarp off the truck.

"Little help?" she grunted. I hid my smile behind my hand as she glared at me, before I went to help. After another few minutes of trying the thing finally came off , but its coming lose caused Anna to lose her balance, and she fell into me. I managed to catch her around the waist before she fell to the ground in a graceless heap. She sighed dramatically and threw her hand against her forehead, swooning.

"But princess, it is you who are to swoon for me!" she proclaimed.

"Get up you dork, you're heavier than you look."

"I am not, you're just a...a stick person!"

"Wow Anna, I might need some ice for that burn."

She shrugged and resumed pulling the tarp off completely, while I pretended my heart wasn't beating just a _teensy_ bit faster than usual after holding her. When she finally got it off, she gave me a satisfied grin and gestured to the bed of the truck. There, nestled between bits of rope, empty cans, a tool box, and bits of skateboard debris, were two surfboards. I remembered now Anna had mentioned when she was younger, she and Kristoff would go stay with her aunt in Hawaii over the summer, where they did nothing but surf. It had been another reason she'd moved closer to the coast.

"Anna, I thought we were here to shoot."

"Skating, surfing, not a whole lot of difference, besides, it's way too hot for me to to anything fully-clothed...wait, what? Shit, I didn't mean it like that," she sputtered after she noticed my laughing. I just shook my head.

"I don't know how to surf."

"Well that's why I brought the longboard," she said, pointing to the larger of the two, "it's a good one for beginners. I figured the one I got a few years ago would do you, since we're pretty similar in height and weight and stuff."

"But I-"

"No buts," she said with finality, before she grabbed the longboard, passed it to me, and then grabbed the other one for herself. She took her bag, attached to which was her skateboard, from the bed, along with my camera bag and swung it around her neck. Then, before I could say anything else on the matter, she grabbed my wrist and dragged me down to the shore.

* * *

**So yeah. I'm sorry, it even felt like a filler while I was writing it. For my thoughts and musings on this chapter check either my **_storynotes_** tag or my **_skater-au_** tag on my tumblr_,_ **_bewareofthefrozenhearts_**.**

**Also: Holy shit, I think this story has gotten more reviews/follows/faves on the first chapter than any of my other fics. Seriously, the Elsanna fandom rocks.**


	3. Bustin' up on the Beach

**I never included disclaimers in my stories, but I figure I should slide one in somewhere.**

**I don't own Frozen, or its characters. If I did, I'd be too busy basking in the glow of my many awards to write incestuous lesbian fanfiction.**

* * *

When we'd made our way down the the sand, Anna promptly and carelessly dropped everything in the first clear spot she could find, except my camera bag, which she wisely set down with care. She crouched down onto her knees and pulled her surfboard in front of her, and gestured for me to do the same. Once I had, she rummaged around in her rucksack a bit, before pulling out a small disc-like object about the size of the palm of her hand from it.

"Wax," she stated, letting me see it. She started rubbing it in circles and up and down the length of her surfboard, "normally, I'd do this at home, to save time, but I was running late today. The wax helps you stay gripped on the board," she explained, and handed the wax to me once she was done. I took it, and started mimicking her actions from a moment ago. She nodded in approval, before standing up again and quickly pulling off her t-shirt. Her back was to me, and I let myself stare a bit. If she was this nicely toned at the back, I was glad I wouldn't have to wait long to see her from the front. Wait, what?

I hadn't noticed she'd turned around again until she cleared her throat.

"You know if you use much more of that , you'd be able to swim in it, you wouldn't even have to go to the ocean," she quipped.

"Oh, sorry I-" she cut me off with a teasing laugh.

"It's okay, that stuff isn't too expensive anyway. Here, let me fix it," She walked around behind me so she could work on it easier. It hadn't occurred to me to move, so she ended up leaning over me while she waxed it more evenly. I suddenly felt like the thin blue tank top I was wearing was still too much clothing.

"Now," she said, standing up again. I missed the proximity, "I'm going to finish getting ready, and you're going to get ready, and then I'm going to teach you how to surf."

After a few moments, and a few stolen glances, Anna stood before me in a short sleeved wet suit top and board shorts, and I before her in my bikini. I felt a little under dressed, especially under Anna's uncharacteristically intense and scrutinizing gaze. She hummed a bit, as though trying to think of something, and then spoke,

"Um...you're not wearing a whole lot."

"Sorry?"

"No! I mean, you look great and normally that'd be...yeah that'd be rockin', but eh...you're probably gonna wipe out a lot, and that's not really, you know, the best thing to wear. Nip-slips. Y'know?"

"Oh."

"Yeah..." she trailed off, "hang on, I might have a spare shirt you could throw on." She returned to her bag, digging around it a bit, throwing out a few random articles of clothing which were decidedly _not_ shirts, before pulling out a large, wrinkled Vans shirt and passed it to me.

"I stole that from Kristoff, but don't worry it doesn't stink, I washed it a lot. He probably doesn't even know it's missing. It's mine now." I nodded and took it from her, slipping it on. The black contrasted with my hair and skin and only served to make my already ghostly-white complexion appear paler. Anna gave me some kind of adoring, goofy smile, before shaking her head slightly and picking up her board. I picked up mine too, and followed her down to the water.

"What about our stuff?"

"I know the lifeguard, he'll keep an eye on things. Don't worry about the camera," she reassured me, before gripping her board to her chest and plunging into the water on it. I did the same, or at least tried to, and copied her paddling her arms to push herself out to deeper water. When she seemed to think we were out far enough, she stopped and sat up on her board.

"Okay first thing's first," she said, once I'd caught up to her. She fished around in the water for something before coming up with a strap I'd just noticed was attached to her board, "find your leash, and strap it around your ankle. That way, when you do fall off, you won't have to go looking for your board, and if you can't get up out of the water, I'll be able to find you and help you. You probably don't have to worry about that though, water's pretty calm today."

I followed her instructions for the next couple of hours. Most of the time was spent learning how to 'pop up' from the board, when you push yourself into standing on it. It took me a while to stop falling over, but once I figured out how to stay up, I was okay.

However, the wind had started to pick up a little around noon, and what had been lazily splashing waves became more powerful. One such wave knocked me off my board from a sitting position. When I tried to get back on the board, another wave came crashing and knocked me off again. I started to panic, it was just like...no. No. I refused to let the memory resurface, as these waves refused me the same. But still, I wasn't sure which way was up, the force of the water has tossed me, and I had clenched my eyes shut against the salt water. I was running out of air, my lungs were starting to burn...

And then I could breathe. A pair of strong arms were wrapped tightly around my abdomen, holding me up against the water.

Anna.

"Elsa, Elsa, Jesus, are you all right?" she said as she worried over me. I took note of my short, panicked breaths, and attempted to slow them, more for her sake than mine. She was about to unravel her arms, but I grabbed her hands and held them in place over my navel. Her touch was calming, reassuring. I leaned against her and I could feel her relax a bit. My back was pressed to her front, her legs hanging over the sides of her board. She didn't try to move again for a few minutes, but she managed to keep us up. Even after everything, I realized the waves probably weren't even that strong, it was my own fears that had me drowning. She spoke up again after I had calmed a bit.

"Elsa, I'm just gonna...try move us back to the shore, okay?" I didn't speak, just nodded weakly and relinquished possession of her arms back to her. We made slow progress, with the less than optimal position in terms of paddling, plus the weight of the other board, still attached to my ankle, but we got there eventually. Anna helped me stand in the shallow water and we made our way back to our stuff, which was, thankfully, still there. We abandoned the boards by the water's edge momentarily. I sat down, and Anna procured a towel from her bag and draped it over me like a blanket. I gripped it tightly enough that my knuckled turned white.

Anna vanished momentarily, returning with the two surfboards in tow. She dropped them a few feet away and seated herself next to me. I lifted an arm, inviting her under the towel-turned-shock-blanket. She huddled into me and put an arm around my waist, it felt like she was trying to keep me from bolting. She needn't have worried, because I was perfectly happy to stay and rest my head on her shoulder. She in turn let her cheek fall lightly on my head.

"So, what happened? Do you wanna talk about it?" So she knew there was something more. As much as I found myself becoming irreversibly emotionally involved with this ray of sunshine, I wasn't quite ready to tell her about my...past.

"Not really."

"All right. How do you feel?"

"Okay. This is nice." Oh well done Els, may as well declare your insatiable lust for the girl now.

It was true that I had felt something...different around Anna. But given the track record of my love life thus far, that is to say, non-existent, I wasn't exactly sure what to do with this information. Or if what I was feeling was more than platonic affection. I didn't have much experience with that either. If she noticed anything in my words though, she didn't comment. I just felt her lips pull into a slight smile before we both fell silent.

I might have dozed off a bit, because when I came to my senses again, it was late afternoon and kids who had gotten off school swarmed the place, plunging it into a cacophony of excited squealing and laughter. Anna laughed lightly, probably at my frowning.

"Good afternoon, sleeping beauty. Wanna go grab a bite? It's almost half-four. There's a place with a nice view of the sea nearby...oh, but uh...if you'd prefer not to, 'cause you know-"

"Sounds lovely," it was sweet of her to consider I may have some aversion to seeing the ocean, but as long as I wasn't almost-drowning in it, I had no complaints.

"Awesome, 'kay, I'm gonna tidy up here a bit. You want to keep that shirt on or do you want your clothes back?"

"I'll keep the shirt, it's cosy. If you don't mind?" She waved me off, saying it was fine. Once we'd gathered our belongings, we made our way back to the pick-up so Anna could stash the surfboards, but she advised against driving, saying it would be hard to find a spot near the beach now. So we walked. Well, I walked. Anna decided to skate.

Still in her board shorts, she'd donned the shirt she was wearing this morning over her wetsuit top as well as her skate shoes (which I still think look incredibly uncomfortable) and a snapback with "Kentucky" on it placed haphazardly on her head. Her hair, usually in pigtails, was loose, made wavy by the sea water. I felt compelled to get some footage, so we spent some time shooting the waterfront. It took us almost three times as long to finally get to the restaurant than Anna had said it would.

A quaint place called "Tiana's", run by a woman of the same name. Anna said that the first time she surfed Santa Monica, she'd stopped by this place with Kristoff for a bite, and ended up hitting it off with the owner, who was also from out of town. New Orleans, Anna said. She'd moved here with her husband and opened up shop.

"Real home cooking," Anna told me, a hint of pride in her voice, as though the place were hers, "when I left the country, I thought I'd gotten the last of it, but Tiana's is like a home away from home. Free ice cream and milkshakes for me and Kristoff too, being friends with the owner of a place never hurts."

"You know, I'm going to have to meet this Kristoff sometime," I remarked. I'd heard enough about him after all.

"Oh you will. He usually comes around to the park with me actually, but he got a job at some big-wig's stables just outside of Bev Hills, so he doesn't get back until late any more. It's weird because his days off are when you have class all day."

"I see..." I trailed off, and we lapsed into silence. We were seated outside. The evening was mild, the sun just starting to set. The breeze, a bit stronger than it had been earlier today, carried the faint scent of the sea, which was only across the main road. Our drinks had arrived a few moments before and I sipped delicately at my diet coke, while Anna had gulped her chocolate milkshake down almost as soon as it had arrived. She was currently eyeing up my own beverage. I chuckled lightly, covering my mouth and offered the drink to her. She all but snatched it from my hand and looked about ready to do the same to it as she had some to her milkshake, before remembering it was mine and she instead took a single swig of it and passed it back.

"Thanks, I'm pretty parched after...whatever that was earlier," she paused a moment, and looked directly into my eyes. I hadn't noticed, but her eyes were a captivating shade of...teal? Cyan? "are you sure you don't want to talk about it?"

"Not now...maybe some other time."

"Okay but-" she was cut off by the waiter, arriving with out food. I, not feeling much like eating after the whole drowning fiasco, had just ordered a sandwich. Anna had ordered her usual, cholesterol-filled meal of fries and a bacon and cheeseburger, which inhaled like a vacuum cleaner. I stared in wonder. She caught me staring and raised an eyebrow.

"Yesh?"

"Don't talk with your mouth full."

"'thorry"

"How do you do it?" she swallowed, thankfully.

"Do what?"

"Eat so much, but stay in such great shape?"

"Um..." she seemed as confused by the concept as I was, "high metabolism? Exercise? I dunno man, it's always been like this."

"Lucky."

* * *

**The ending may seem a bit abrupt, but it was actually the only good place I could end it without the whole thing going over like 5000 words. This is good news however, as it means I already have much of chapter 4 down, it'll be out with in the next 4 days or so.**

**Last I checked, we had 97 followers, which is over twice the amount of my second-highest follower count (that being 43), and I'd like to thank each and every one of you. **

**My reviewers get special thanks. Interesting fact: the speed at which I update is directly proportional to the amount of reviews I get. Not that I'm being a review whore, asking for x amount before I post again, but it's very encouraging to see them.**

**It has come to my attention this story (as well as my other Frozen fic) have been added to the ELSANNA community on this site, so thanks again to whoever suggested it/added it.**

**There's no story notes on this chapter because I was half asleep writing it, and don't remember what happened.**

**Also, extra super-special-awesome thank you to **_getoutoftheordinary_** on tumblr, who sent the first fanmail (which was really fucking awesome). I included the snapback for you.**


	4. A-Maybe-Possible-Crush

**I have nothing to say to you people**

* * *

After dinner at Tiana's Anna asked me if we could get a few shots with the night-setting on my camera. I didn't see a problem with it. The air had gotten chilly, now that the sun had set, but the cold never really bothered me, and Anna was so hot-blooded I doubt she's ever even felt the cold.

We walked to the waterfront, where there was an open stretch of concrete good for Anna's skating. She told me there were better, more exciting spots around, but they were a good bit further of a walk, and could pretty dangerous in the dark. I'd done a bit of research over the past number of weeks, watching an excessive amount of skateboarding videos. I wouldn't admit it to Anna, but I hadn't even minded doing it. They could be quite impressive. I still preferred to watch Anna though.

We went over what we were going to do. In the low light, I'd need to be close for some shots, so I set up the infra red camera on my tripod about half a meter off the ground, and I'd track her with the other camera I'd brought.

After a while of following her with the night setting on the camera I was holding, I played the footage back, only to find it hazy and hard to see. Shit. I should have cleaned the lens. The problem could be temporarily solved if I got closer, but if I did, I'd be all but pressed up against Anna, and, not that I was against it, but the whole affair may be a little...distracting. Figuring that wouldn't be a great idea, and that there was really no point in trying to continue to film, I thought I'd have a little fun.

As she set up for her next run, I stood in front of Anna, and shoved the camera up into her face. She raised a quizzical eyebrow, stifling a laugh.

"Uh..."

"I had a sudden urge to get these freckles of yours on camera. They're like the most imperfect perfect freckles I've ever seen, how _do_ you do it?" She looked at me, flabbergasted for a moment, before catching on.

"Well," she started, flicking her tousled hair over her shoulder, "it's all to do with genetics you know. The combination of possibly Celtic-Scandinavian ancestors, and the time I spent as a child avoiding sunblock like the plague have only enhanced these "perfectly imperfect" things."

"Well just so you know, they're absolutely _adorable,_" I flicked her nose for added effect. I thought over what she had said for a moment, "wait, Scandinavian? Whereabouts?"

"Um...Norway, I think. I've never really been all that interested in it."

"What a coincidence, my family came from Norway. Arendelle is a distortion of an old Norwegian name. Though I doubt you'd care for the whole etymology of it."

"Nope," she said, smiling goofily as she popped the 'p', "by the way, why is there still a camera in my face?"

"Well...call me a glutton for punishment, but I've decided I quite enjoy looking at it, though I cannot fathom as to why that is."

"You may definitely have masochistic tendencies."

"No I don't think so..." I leaned closer. Oh my God Elsa what are you doing? "I think I might just find it very aesthetically pleasing," Elsa why are you flirting with this girl? Just stop. I didn't really have much experience with flirting. Sure I'd often been the target of the act whenever the few friends I had and I would go to bars and clubs on a night out, but I'd never reciprocated the action. This was new, and weird, and I was probably making an absolute fool of myself.

It slowly dawned on me that by leaning closer a moment ago, I had, unwittingly, brought us close enough to kiss. Elsa you dumb fuck.

Anna looked as stunned as I felt, her mouth opened and closed a few times, a very good imitation of a fish, before she finally found her tongue.

"W-well who wouldn't, I suppose?" she choked out. Anna seemed to have about as much experience with the whole flirting-thing that I did. Thank goodness, maybe she hadn't picked up on it. I took the opportunity to pull away slowly, but not before something flickered across her face. Disappointment?

"...people who have retained some shred of sanity," I told her, hoping the slight jab would alleviate some of the tension. After taking a second to realize what I had actually said, she frowned and brushed past me, digging into my side with her elbow as she passed.

"Ow!"

"My apologies, my queen, but frankly, you were being a bit rude," I smiled at her. I knew I deserved that, but it did help lighten the mood a bit.

"Come on, it's too dark, and I've got Ben and Jerry's in my freezer."

The next day I didn't have any classes, it being the weekend, but Anna had to work. That was great though, because I really needed to talk to somebody about Anna. Pronto. And I knew there was only one guy I could trust with this. My best friend, Olaf Skadi.

We'd both attended the same uppity arts high school. I'd been selected to direct the year's big freshman play, and Olaf auditioned as the lead male role. His charisma and positivity had immediately attracted me to him, non-romantically. He was a lot like Anna in that sense.

He was also a raging homosexual, so if there was anyone I could talk to about this, it was Olaf.

I called him up early in the morning, hoping to catch him before he went somewhere. He was currently working as a freelance actor, he'd often prowl the streets of Hollywood, hoping to get picked up as an extra, or get word of some small part or another. I called him up, the only number I had on speed-dial, besides Anna.

"Helloooo Olaf speaking."

"Hey Olaf, it's Elsa."

"Oh Elsa! We haven't hung out in ages you know. I was starting to think you'd forgotten about me."

"I know, I know, I'm sorry. It's this film project, it's totally been kicking my ass."

"Such vulgar language from my Elsa. It must be really bad, is there anything I can do to help?"

"Actually, that's exactly why I was calling, think you could come over for a bit?"

"I'll be right there," he switched to an authoritative tone, "supplies?"

"Not required, commander. There are no casualties."

"Good to hear it," he said, before hanging up. I smiled fondly down at the phone. Olaf and I had started our code back when I had first broken down crying under the stress of my first high school film project. In an attempt to cheer me up, he'd talked about supplies like a commander in an army, and come back with heaps of chocolate. It had been our way of helping each other with bad times ever since.

Olaf arrived, rapping on the door with our special knock. One, one, two quick knocks, and one more. As soon as I'd swung the door open, he scooped me up in a crushing hug, quite a feat, considering he was so much shorter than I was. Then again, at five-foot-ten-inches, I was taller than a lot of people.

"Olaf...can't...breathe!" I gasped out. He laughed as he set me down, made his way over to the fridge, and cracked open a can of beer. It was ten in the morning, but I'd figured out a long time ago not to question him and just roll with it. He poured me a glass of chocolate milk, my comfort drink, and set himself and the drinks down and patted the seat beside him.

"Now, tell me what's up, is it getting the props, the budget? Oh, is it the actors again?"

"Well," I began, seating myself beside him, and sipping at my beverage, "she's part of it. Actually she's the whole reason I called you over."

"Is it bad?"

"No! No, she's great. Actually she's amazing and-"

"Oh Honey, you definitely have it bad."

"What?"

"You're big-time crushing on this girl. Aww Els this is a first! Tell me about her, when can I meet her?"

"Slow down, I've-_possibly_-got a crush on her, I'm not marrying her...but..."

"But...?"

"She's...pretty awesome?"

Olaf burst into laughter at my choice of words, saying that may be one way of putting it. I was blushing slightly, but glad I had called Olaf over. It was good to finally talk to somebody about this, and get it off my chest.

Olaf stayed until evening, when I'd promised Anna I'd drop by the Starbucks she works at so we could shoot a little more. The few shots I'd managed to get in Santa Monica turned out pretty well, and the ones from the infra red cam looked pretty cool, which would add a little diversity to the film. Using the footage we had, I'd managed to hammer out a little story, about a girl wanting to reach her dream as a pro, though I really couldn't take credit for it. It was, after all, exactly what Anna was trying to do. For dramatic effect, however, I wanted to get some big, impressive tricks, bigger than the ones we had, and Anna agreed, so we decided to visit one of Anna's a friends, a "skateboarding guru known only as 'Sven'", to see if he knew of any top-secret skating spots that wouldn't be in any other local tapes.

Olaf dropped me off at the Starbucks, since it was on his way home anyway. We parted ways with him teasing me about Anna, and me blushing a little, before perking up once I saw her through the window. She looked like she'd rather be anywhere but behind that counter, her head was resting on her hand. It was 5:30 pm near the end of May, not exactly the busiest time for coffee, so she didn't even have that to keep her distracted. It was a welcome sight though, because there were only a few other patrons in the place, Anna would probably be allowed leave straight away.

I pushed the door open, keeping my eyes on her face. She had a glance over in the direction of the door after hearing the ding of the bell and looked away, before doing a double-take and standing to attention looking at me.

"Well you look like you're having fun," I remarked, making my way over to her, "can I get a strawberry frappuccino, or whatever it is?"

"Cute," she dead-panned, "name?" she asked, picking up a clear cup from the stack, and pulling out a Sharpie.

"Seriously Anna?" I scoffed.

"M'kay, one blended strawberry frappuccino for a 'Seriously Anna', that'll be 3.20, please," she stuck out her and hand and gave me a cheeky grin. I rolled my eyes at her and slapped the five-dollar bill I was holding into her hand. She frowned at it. "I was kidding you know, this one's on me, I've probably eaten more of your food than you have at this stage," she handed the note back to me. She had a point.

After I took it back, she got to work on my order, humming under her breath. I was tempted to strike up a conversation with her, but I was afraid if I distracted her, I might throw her off. I took in the sounds and smells of the shop instead. A soft song played through small speakers spaced throughout the café, the robust smell of coffee beans clung to everything and pleasantly invaded my nose when I inhaled. I relaxed, leaning against the counter top. There were only three others around, a man in a suit with a newspaper, who was probably entirely too warm to even be drinking coffee, and two teenage girls paying more attention to the phones in their hands than each other.

Anna nudged my elbow after a few minutes, handing me my drink. She promised she'd be back, she just had to get changed and tell the manager she was heading out for the evening. I sipped my frappuccino, allowing myself to once again embrace the tranquillity of the near-empty shop. It was warm, but not uncomfortably so. Relaxing. It reminded me of Anna. I suddenly couldn't picture a better place for her to be working. It wasn't the busiest Starbucks during any day, being on a side street, and away from downtown, so this easy atmosphere only ever got disrupted on a cold day, or in the morning or afternoon, when Joe Everyman was looking for his caffeine fix to get him through the day.

Thinking about it now, I'd probably met Anna a long time ago. I frequented this particular place, any time I was feeling adventurous enough to wander further than the Tim Horton's just around the corner from my apartment. I preferred the mellow vibes. If Anna had been working here since she came to Hollywood, as she said she had, then it's likely I would've ordered from her at least a few times. I snorted at the thought. Small world.

"What are you laughing at?" Anna piped from behind me, startling me a little. I gave her a look over. She had abandoned the uniform black shirt and pants, and her apron for her usual combination of baggy jeans and a plaid shirt. Her skateboard was tucked under her arm, the graphic on the underside of the board had long since been worn off with use. It looked about ready to fall apart. I think if she were to get sponsored, a new board would be the first thing she'd avail of.

"Nothing really, you ready?" She nodded. "Aright, let's go see this Sven guy."

* * *

**I lied I have lots to say. Okay, after some consideration, I've decided I will update Dogtown every Thursday, if possible (if not, then Friday, and if not Friday, asap), so you have a regular posting day to look forward to.**

**They'll be finished with the video soon, and I'm relieved, because it's quite hard to convey a visual medium and the whole process of it in writing, without boring you all to tears, but the story is far from over.**

**So Elsa may-or-may-not have feelings for Anna, but we're not sure where Anna stands, hmm?**

**Also: We've passed 100 followers, you guys rock! **

**Also also: I've been doing some sketches to help myself visualise the Dogtown AU counterparts of the characters, which I might post to my tumblr under the **_skater-au_** tag so check out **_bewareofthefrozenhearts_** on tumblr.**

**Another Also: The end of this chapter has been my favourite part so far apart from chapter one.**


	5. Hotel Shenanigans

**Sorry it's a little late, but it's extra long to make up for it**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

I didn't like this idea. I didn't like it at all.

We had been to see The Great Sven, who turned out to be graffiti artist and a native of Hawaii with more hair than I had. He had eye-balled me suspiciously. Once Anna whispered something in his ear, he'd grunted, and pulled a small notebook from his pocket, flicked through a few pages and finally stopped on a page with one place written on it.

"The Plaza of Hotel Arendelle on Hollywood Boulevard!" Anna had read excitedly, "Arendelle huh? That sounds familiar..." she trailed off for a second before it dawned on her, "oooooh."

"And the penny drops," I remarked snidely. She turned to me, puppy-eyes at the ready, but I beat her to it. "Absolutely not!"

"But why?" she whined.

"Several reasons. It's a health and safety hazard, it's one of the busiest hotels this side of the U.S., you probably won't even be allowed in the front door dressed like that, no offence, and if you still want to try, you'd have to trespass which is illegal, and believe me, my father will not hesitate to call the cops."

"But that's why we have to! Nobody else has done it-"

"And no one ever will."

"You could just ask your dad?"

"It's because he's my father that I'm so sure he'll refuse."

"You never know unless you try."

"He's my father, trust me, I know."

"Ugh."

"'Ugh', yourself"

"But Elsaaaaaa," she moaned.

"But Annaaaaa," I mocked. She glared at me and jutted out her lower lip. She turned away and started walking in the direction we had originally come from. I shot an apologetic look to Sven, who didn't seem to notice as he had gone back to his previous task of vandalism, and made after Anna. She'd almost made it to the end of the block by now. This girl moved fast. She had to stop before she crossed he road and I grabbed her shoulder, making her turn to face me. As expected, she was still pouting.

"Why did you storm off? You big baby," I teased. Her face contorted, trying to suppress a smile.

"Stop it, I'm trying to be mad at you."

"Stop what?"

"Stop being...you."

"Oh? Who would you rather I be then?"

"Somebody who will let me skate that plaza."

Exasperated, I ran a hand through my hair, trying to tame a few flyaway blonde strands.

"I might, _might_, be able to get you in, after hours. The outdoor plaza will be mostly empty, and there's a few places that might be good to skate out there. But you cannot, under any circumstance, let them see you." Her face lit up like Christmas had come early once I'd said we might get in. I doubt anything I said after that had even gotten through her stupid head. She gave an uncharacteristically girly squeal of delight and pulled me into a vice-grip hug before quickly releasing me and looking away, blushing slightly. She cleared her throat a bit before mumbling,

"So yeah, let's go then."

* * *

At three in the morning, hardly anyone was fully conscious, the concierge and myself included. Anna on the other hand, was positively bursting at the seams with energy, far too much for this hour, in my opinion. Thankfully, due to the fatigue of the concierge, we made it through the lobby without any hassle, despite Anna's enthusiasm.

The lobby, in all its excessive grandeur, was a pain to get through. Anna's clunky shoes slapping off the marble floor with every step wasn't helping, and because of her seemingly inherit clumsiness, I was afraid of her knocking over any of the genuine Ming vases, worth more than she could probably ever hope to make in five years working at Starbucks. But we pushed through, as I said.

I used my staff card to open the door out to the outdoor area. It was something my father had gifted me when the new locks were installed, should I ever wish to take time away from my apartment and treat myself. It seldom saw the light of day, but I was glad I had it. It was all-access, something I'd never thought would even be of any use until today.

The garden and outdoor seating area hadn't changed since I'd last seen it a few years ago. It was still as beautiful as ever. When I still lived with my parents on the top floor, I'd sometimes escape here. It was so detached from the hustle and bustle of the streets I'd sometimes lose myself here and pretend I was a thousand miles away, in the Amazon basin perhaps, stalking wild beasts. The illusion was shattered whenever a guest wandered in, usually by accident, looking for a bathroom, but for the most part, few people came here during the day, fewer still at night. If we had to get footage here, now was the best time for it.

Anna flitted from one spot to another. The area was sizeable and well-kept, considering it wasn't often visited, and we had plenty of to shoot. She began doing a few warm-up tricks, while I got my equipment ready. I was only allowing us one shot at this, so we were going to make it count.

Anna planned out a line she was going to skate, and let me know what she planned to do so I could film better. She would do a circular line around the outside before cutting through the middle and ending with a "Backside Boneless" on the fountain in the centre. She listed off a few other tricks she was planning to do, and demonstrated any I wasn't familiar with. Finally, she told me she was going to do it without all four wheels ever touching the ground at once.

I told her she was mad. She told me she was just ambitious.

The first two or three times were unsuccessful, the wheels all having touched the ground at one point or another. After ten, I was about ready to call it quits, least some member of staff come around to see what all the frustrated grunting and swearing was about. But her eyes had a steely look to them that made me too afraid to even suggest going home with this footage.

Finally, on take twenty-three, we got it. She'd made it the whole way around the outside balanced on her two front wheels, and sometimes on just one of them, flipping and twisting the board, before she made it to the home stretch, cutting through the middle of the plaza and jumping to the edge of the fountain on one leg. She twisted the other leg around the one planted on the edge of the fountain and held the board to it, while using her free arm to stay balanced. The lifted leg and board were held in such a way that the water pouring from the fountain poured over it, causing the water to spray in several different directions. I managed to avoided getting soaked, and got an amazing shot of her big finish.

Anna was not so lucky.

After holding the trick as long as she could, she started to sway and lose her balance. Unable to reach her on time, I watched helplessly as she fell, butt-first into the fountain with an audible splash. Somebody had to have heard that. I panicked, grabbed my equipment and pulled my hood up over my head, hoping that if somebody did see, they mightn't be able to identify me to my father. After I had seen to my own possessions, I made my way over to a now sopping-wet Anna who was struggling to remove herself from the water. I stuck a hand out and she took it gratefully, but still blushing slightly from embarrassment.

Instead of trying to go through the lobby, where I knew the concierge would now be on high-alert, I let us through a side door. It proved hard to find for a moment, as the greenery had grown over the rarely-used entrance over the years, but I eventually spotted it behind the drooping leaves of a palm tree. Using my card to open it, we slipped inside. From this hallway, we couldn't see the reception, but we could hear some shuffling and people walking about, probably spurred on by the commotion Anna had caused in the fountain.

I held a finger to my lips gesturing for Anna to keep quiet. We could act casual and walk around, except Anna was holding her board still, which was strictly banned here, as well as still being completely soaked through. I gestured for her to follow me and we silently made our way down the corridor in the opposite direction of the lobby. I led the way through the halls I knew so well, but hadn't walked in years, to one of the stairwells scattered throughout the building. From my explorations as a child, I knew, like the garden, this one was used seldom. The view was better from the front of the hotel, so they'd try to book those rooms first, making the back stairwell almost obsolete.

Once we were in the door and it has shut behind us, Anna tugged my hand to stop me.

"Where are we even going?"

"It's a secret," I said and stuck my tongue out at her, before grasping her hand tighter and almost yanking her up the stairs. The whole way up, I tried to ignore the tingling in the hand that held Anna's, pushing Olaf's words from earlier today to the back of my mind as I concentrated on powering up to the 43rd floor, where Anna decided to give up and collapse against the wall for a few minutes, breathless. She used our still-joined hands to pull me down beside her.

"I'm not...going...any further...until you...tell me where we're...going," she panted, chest heaving.

"You know, you're not as fit as you look," I told her, poking her in the stomach. She flinched away, holding back a giggle and grabbed the wrist of the hand I'd used to poke her with her free hand. She gave me a warning look, trying to keep a straight face, but failing.

"Don't you dare."

"Or what?"

"I'll..." she hesitated, "I'll set you up with Kristoff!"

"Really? Well I'm just terrified now," I mocked her, pulling my hand away and threw it against my cheek in affected shock.

"You should be! He goes on about his friends the 'love experts' and he smells like a barn, like, all the time and he used to share food with the horses back on the farm. And not like, cut the carrot in half, he'd let the horses take a bite and he'd take a bite out of the same carrot!"

"Oh, man, that's actually kind of gross. You're right, I'm really worried. Okay, come on, we're going up to the room my parents usually leave free for me. It's got some of my old clothes there, the might fit you. Can't have you getting sick on me. I thought we could just crash there for the night then, I'm far too tired to even think about the trek home."

Anna, satisfied with the answer, grabbed her board off the ground and got up. Our hands had still somehow managed to stay intertwined, so she pulled me up with her. We made our way up the rest of the stairs slower than before, and by the time we got there, I was about ready to collapse. My father had set aside a room for me before and my things were still in it, supposedly. I just hoped he hadn't gotten fed up and emptied it out.

After unlocking the door and stepping in, I was relieved to find the room mostly as I had left it. It seemed to still be frequented by maids, and, when I checked, the mini-fridge was stocked with fresh food. Anna had left her board by the door after following me in and went to flop onto the king-sized bed in the middle of the room. I didn't say anything, I just pulled out a towel and some of my clothes that I had used to sleep in and chucked them at her head. She let out a surprised yelp, muffled by the items covering her face. Getting the message, she grabbed them and stalked over to the bathroom, declaring she was taking a shower.

I was left to my own devices for a few minutes, so I decided to kick off my shoes and get comfy. I retrieved one of those tiny screw-cap bottles of champagne from the fridge. Forgoing a glass in favour of downing it straight from the bottle like a common drunk, I settled myself against the headboard of the bed and pulled out my camera to go over the footage.

I really was good. There had been just enough lighting on the gardens to create a kind of foreboding atmosphere, like we weren't supposed to be there, which technically, we weren't. I pulled out my laptop from the camera bag and connected them, so I could get to work on the film while I was waiting for Anna to finish up. I could still hear the water running, along with some muted warbling that might have been what passed for singing back in Kentucky.

I chuckled at the thought of Anna in rolled-up overalls over a chequered shirt with a straw hat plopped on her head, chilling on top of a tractor or gallivanting across the cornfields, attempting to jump over pigs on her skateboard. Really the pigtails she always insisted on wearing did nothing to dispel the country-bumpkin image, and before I could stop myself my chuckles had developed into full-blown laughter. I hadn't noticed the sound of the water cutting off, or the end of the warbling.

"What're you laughing at, princess?" Anna said above my laughter. Her nose was scrunched up and she was frowning, completely confused. Her hair hung limp around her shoulders, a small towel draped across them. She was in the clothes I'd given her, a pair of old grey sweats and loose green t-shirt bearing the mascot of my old high-school. She was standing in the doorway of the bathroom, looking like the furthest thing from a country-bumpkin this world had to offer, but I still couldn't get the image out of my head and I kept laughing, my hand covered my mouth and my eyes were screwed shut. It wasn't even particularly funny, it's just that I was so deliriously sleepy, and a little tipsy from having drank that champagne so quickly, pretty much anything would have been funny.

Because I was so busy trying, and failing, to forget Anna-in-overalls, I forgot about Anna-in-my-clothes-and-looking-just-a-teeny-bit-sexy. That was until I felt an extra weight on the bed hanging over me. I opened my eyes in time to see her push my laptop gently out of my hands and lean closer to me, so she hovered just a few inches out of read, hands on either side of my body, her legs straddling my own. I was trapped. She leaned deliciously close to my year and whispered into it:

"If you don't tell me what's so funny, I'm gonna have to..." she trailed off, building suspense. She was so close, I could almost hear her heart beating, and I could feel the warmth she radiated. Water dripped from her damp hair onto my collarbone, and I resisted the urge to shiver with anticipation. "I'm gonna have to, tickle you!" she shouted. I had no time to react as she leaned away from me again to give her access to my sides.

She dug in relentlessly. I tried to plead with her to stop, but all that came out were giggles and short gasps that were supposed to be wishes for her to end it. I was thrashing and squirming, trying to escape, but she was still straddling me, and that girl was strong. It went on for another few minutes. Tickling, I thought, in between Anna's jabs, must have been invented as one of those horrific new forms of torture during the Spanish Inquisition. It certainly would have worked on me. I eventually managed to gasp out a "stop", and after a few more goes, she finally did.

"So, you gonna tell me or will I have to get the tickle monster back here?" she teased.

"It's stupid really."

"I'm listening"

"Um...okay. So I was kind of imagining you in like, over-alls and stuff. With a straw hat and everything. Real country-girlish, you know. I'm a little bit drunk, I've never handled it well."

She looked at me, bowled over, trying to see if I was being serious. She she saw I was entirely serious, she joined my giggle fit.

"Elsa, I don't think I've _ever_ owned a straw hat, or even looked at one. I mean, yeah, rural America can be a little backwards, but you know, we didn't just hibernate through the past few decades. Believe it or not, we were building these things called roads, and driving these strange contraptions called cars-"

"Stop making fun of me!"

"I'm being deadly serious," she frowned and looked me right in the eye, "this is very serious stuff, and I'm being so serious right now and I'm not just saying that, I'm being really serious right now."

"Really serious?"

"Seriouser than I've ever, ever been in my whole life," she affirmed.

"Anna."

"Yes?"

I pulled at the crook of her elbow, causing her to fall almost on top of me. At the last moment she rolled away she her back was to me when I lay on my side. I snaked my arms around her waist and drew myself closer to her, snuggling up against her back. Sober, I don't think I'd ever dreamed of doing this, but with liquid courage running through me, I guess I forgot that this was slightly inappropriate behaviour between 'just friends'.

"Go to sleep you dork..." I mumbled into her wet hair, feeling myself drifting off. She was tense in my arms before that, but she allowed herself to relax one I ordered her to sleep. I was almost gone when I heard her mumble back.

"G'night princess."

* * *

**So that's that. For my thoughts and junk on this chapter check the **_skater-au_** tag (under Dogtown on my tumblr) and I'll put a link to a video of the trick Anna did. If you've somehow forgotten, my tumblr is **_bewareofthefrozenhearts_**.**

**I don't much like asking for reviews, but really guys, I've let myself keep this story fairly open, with just a list of main plot points I need to achieve. Anything in-between, I'm writing in response to your reaction to each chapter, so if you don't tell me what you did or didn't like, I won't be all that sure where to go with it.**


	6. I Scream, You Scream

I awoke the next morning to a light throb in my head and a mane of bright-red hair in my face. Some of Anna's hair had made its way past my slightly parted lips in the night and I tried to splutter it out without waking her. I needn't have bothered, I recalled the time she'd fallen asleep on my couch and despite every effort I made to rouse her, she remained ignorant of the land of the living.

With this knowledge, I abandoned finesse and yanked my arm out from under her, as well as pushing the few strands of hair out of my mouth. She shifted a bit, and I worried I'd woken her, but she simply yawned, rolled over, and snuggled herself into my side, so her face was now right beside mine. I might have been tempted to kiss her in my still foggy state, if not for the blast of morning breath she sent me when she yawned once again.

While not disgustingly unpleasant, it was something I'd rather not experience again, so I slipped out of the bed and made my was to the bathroom, deciding a shower was in order. My progress toward the shower was interrupted when I almost tripped over Anna's discarded clothes from last night, including her Batman patterned bra, which I grinned at, amused. I wondered if the girl even owned anything with even a tiny bit of lace of it, before berating myself because these were not appropriate thoughts to be having about one of your closest friends.

It was fair to include Anna in that small circle. Certainly none of my other friends that I'd met in college frequented my home as much as she did (nor did they attempt to starve me by eating all my food). In fact, I'd more than once considered giving her her own key and just be done with it. I found myself smiling in wonder at it all. How in just over a month, she and I had already developed this connection. I was attracted to her, after my conversation with Olaf yesterday I couldn't deny it, but even if nothing ever happened between us, I felt like this was one of those friendships that lasted. Like Olaf.

I shook my head to clear the thoughts. It was too early for this deep-thinking crap. I pulled off the clothes I'd worn to bed and hopped in the shower. The shower unfortunately, opened more opportunities to think, so in order to avoid this, I started singing. I jumped from song to song, singing a lot of choruses from songs currently in the charts, the only bits I knew. The result was some sort of mangled chart-topping remix. I lost myself in the moment after that, goofing off. My hair was lathered and pushed up in a fauxhawk and I was bopping my head, and at one point I'd started singing into the shower head. I'd totally forgotten I wasn't the only one in the hotel room until there was a gasp of "oh my God sorry!" and the sound of the bathroom door slamming, followed by hardly contained peals of laughter from the other side of the door.

Well shit. Not only had Anna now (probably) seen me naked, but also naked and acting like a complete fool. I quickly washed out my hair and wrapped a towel around myself so I could go out for some damage control. When I stepped out into the room, I saw Anna with my laptop, but not looking at the screen. Instead, she'd been glaring holes in the bathroom door and had swiftly looked away when I came through, affecting innocence. Her tomato-red face gave her away though.

Realising she was being anything but inconspicuous, her eyes darted to the laptop screen and she started to furiously smash keys. A quick glance showed the thing wasn't even switched on. I scoffed. Smooth Anna.

"Anna-"

"I don't know what you're talking about I definitely didn't go in there to listen to your singing and I most certainly did not see you naked."

"You wanted to hear me sing?" I tried, avoiding the topic of my nudity.

"I was just curious was all," she rushed, "so...the video? Wanted to see what you had so far." She quickly changed the subject, sweeping the bathroom fiasco under the carpet.

"Well, I think we have all the skating footage we need. I just need some of you talking about your experience skateboarding and stuff, so it'll feel a bit like a documentary. I was thinking we could make two slightly different versions since they're both for separate things. So," I said, moving over to my bag to grab my camera and tripod and setting them up, "we can just do it here and get it done with. Just let me ah...get dressed first," I added, suddenly remembering the only thing keeping my body concealed was a towel. Not giving Anna a chance to respond, I grabbed a t-shirt and shorts that were still in the closet and retreating to the bathroom.

By the time I had brushed the knots and snags out of my hair and gotten dressed, Anna had tidied herself up, somehow managing to tame the red mane atop her head into her usual twin braids. I pointed at the bed, telling her to take a seat. With the position of the windows in the room, this would be the spot with the best lighting. I moved my camera over and fiddled with it until it was about eye level with her and I pressed the record button.

"Okay so, we're recording now. I just want you to chat about stuff. I have a few questions, and we have a few hours before you have to get to work, so yeah, take your time and no pressure. First question, and try to say as much as you can, how did you first get into skating?"

Anna answered without hesitation,

"Oh, well, when I was a kid, all the other girls in my elementary school were all about dolls and hair and clothes and stuff. When I first started school, my best friend was Kristoff, son of the only people living in like a fifty mile radius or somethin', we were way out in rural Kentucky, so I'd spent most of my childhood hanging out with him and because I didn't really know how to relate to girls, I didn't even try. I tried to be as different from them as possible. Anyway, one day we were in my front room, watchin' some sports channel, and these guys on these little bits of wood with wheels come one, and they pull all these crazy-ass tricks and it was seriously the coolest thing I'd ever seen. Then the next day, we convinced my mom to drive us into town so we could get some boards. When we got home then, the first thing Kristoff did was bust his nose," she scoffed, pausing for a second while remembering the moment, "then I was pushing myself along while laughing at him and I wasn't looking where I was going, so I fell off my board into some briers and got all these cuts and this really gnarly scar I still have."

"I didn't know you had a scar, can I see?" my interest piqued. I'd seen a fair amount of Anna, what with out beach adventure a while back, so I was curious to know how I'd missed it.

"Uh yeah, it's on my thigh, kind of high up. I'd have to take my pants off to show you though..."

"Oh, right," I blushed at the thought of seeing a part of Anna so close to, well, you can guess. "So next question then, what did your family think of the skating?"

This time, Anna hesitated and looked down at the floor, a sad expression crossing her face.

"It's okay, you don't have to answer that-"

"No it's all right. There's not really much to say, I guess. I mean, my mom was a bit pissed about the scar and stuff, and she hid my board in a cupboard. I found it though, and the next day, me and Kris were back out skating on the road. She took it a few more times, but I'd always find it again so she kind of just...gave up," she sighed. "Can I um, can I have a minute?" she asked, voice cracking. I could see her eyes misting over slightly, and I rushed to pause the recording.

"I'm sorry if the question made it uncomfortable, we don't have to continue at all if you don't want to." I crouched down on one knee in front of her, so I was looking up at her face. One or two tears had escaped the corners of her eyes, but she was trying to hold them back, sniffling. I placed a hand on her knee, hoping to reassure her, but it didn't seem to help, so instead I joined her on the bed, just in time for her to collapse sideways onto me to bury her face in my shoulder while she cried silently.

I don't know how long we stayed there, but when she finally stopped and pulled away, my shirt was soaked through and had a thin trail of drool leading right to her mouth. She grimaced at the sight.

"Sorry."

"You have nothing to apologise for," I told her, my voice soft, "how are you feeling?"

She seemed to ponder it for moment.

"Hungry," she sniffled.

"Well..." I glanced at my watch, "it's not too late, they might still be serving breakfast downstairs."

"No. I want...ice cream," she pouted. I laughed at her expression. It was ten-thirty in the morning and she wanted ice cream. But how could I refuse that face?

"All right, come on. I know the best ice cream place. Just let me change my shirt," I said, unwillingly detaching myself from her. She grimaced once again at the sight of the soaked-wet patch on my shirt.

"Sorry."

* * *

Once we'd cleaned up the room a bit, we left through the lobby. I assured Anna her precious board would be okay. There was a few people checking in down there, so any contraband item would be hard to spot. Once we'd made it away from the building, we strolled at an easy pace in the direction of the ice cream shop, as it wasn't far.

As we walked, Anna's arm, the one that wasn't holding her board, bumped against mine. I don't know what came over me then, but before her arm swing away again, I grabbed her hand and intertwined our fingers in a lose grip. Her arm stiffened, and I was starting to release her hand, already regretting the move, when her arm relaxed again and gave my hand a light squeeze. We didn't speak, our arms swinging slightly as we walked and I couldn't quell the bubbling sensation in the pit of my stomach.

When we got to the shop, Anna squinted up at the name.

"Marshmallow's Ice Cream Emporium? Never heard of it." I shrugged. It did quite well, being so close to one of the busiest areas of California, but it didn't surprise me she didn't recognise it. I didn't give her an answer beyond the shrug, deciding instead to the the ice cream speak for itself. I went inside, Anna in tow and went over to the counter. There was nobody else in the shop, also not surprising, as it was an ungodly hour for ice cream. The was also nobody currently at the counter, so I called out to the back room, hoping to be heard.

"Marshmallow? You there?"

"Just a sec'" a gruff voice boomed from the kitchen.

"Wow have you got the Abominable Snowman hidden back there?" Anna whispered in my ear and I giggled.

"I guess you could say that."

"What do you-" she was cut off by a grunt from the man who was ambling out of the kitchen to behind the counter. Anna didn't speak, she just stared at the giant figure of Marshmallow now towering over us, the counter and his apron looking comically small on him.

"Hey Els, what can I get you?"

"The usual, thanks Marsh. And for Anna...chocolate?" She nodded enthusiastically when I gave her a sideways glance.

"Cool, I'll get that for you now," he said, and started scooping it out. Once we had our treats, we made our way over to the booth in the corner. We sat in silence for a few minutes, simply content to eat, until Anna tried to steal some of my ice cream with her spoon. I didn't say anything, I just looked at her, waiting for her reaction as she swallowed it. She made a face somewhere between confused, disgusted and delighted.

"What the heck is that?"

"Sea-Salt," I stated casually, going back to my eating. Anna was having none of it.

"Sea-salt. Sea-salt? Elsa, that is not a thing you put in ice cream. You put sweet things in it, not fucking sea-salt, okay? I've tasted sea-salt. It's gross. And the most annoying thing about this is that your ice cream isn't gross. What the heck?" she raved.

"I find it quite bracing, actually."

"No stop, here, have some chocolate," she said, scooping a decent-sized blob of her ice cream onto her spoon and tried to force it into my mouth. I made the mistake of opening my mouth to reprimand her and she took the opportunity to shove it in.

"Ha!" she exclaimed, "that's what ice cream should taste like."

I winced, and swallowed. I wasn't much a fan of chocolate ice cream, so I made sure not to provide Anna with another opportunity to force-feed me. Because of this, things got quiet again and we kept eating. Eventually, I felt the silence become a little stifling, so I tried to approached a subject I had wanted to avoid.

"Anna, earlier when you-"

"Can we not talk about that please? At least, not right now," she pleaded, her eyes pained. I nodded and her tensed shoulders became slack, relieved. She changed the subject "so you and um...Marshmallow seem to know each other, what's that all about?"

"Hmm? Oh, Marshall's been dating my friend Olaf for a while. He opened up this place a few years ago with his parents' life assurance. I was there when they first met, it was actually the cutest thing-"

"You're the cutest thing," she cut me off, not seeming to know that she had said that. It dawned on her after seeing the confused expression on my face. "Shit! I didn't mean to say that out loud, um, is it hot in here or is that just me? Wait, it shouldn't be hot, it's an ice cream parlour. Fuck..."

"We could ah...go to my place to...em...finish the interview thing?"

"I think um...that' a good idea..."

* * *

**I'm useless. I set a deadline and I've twice failed to meet it. But this chapter was seriously kicking my ass. Anyway, thanks for sticking with it and giving me feedback guys, last chapter's was awesome, I have literally no excuse for not posting sooner. Hope you enjoyed it, I might be able to push the next one out a bit early to make up for this one.**


	7. Snowmen, Sponsors and Southerners oh my

**Okay it's not early but it's not late.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

After we finally managed to film Anna's "interview" sections, her version of the tape didn't take all that long to put together. A simple cutting job really, it took under two weeks for me to finish it and send it in. The real challenge would be the version I was going to turn in to my professor. Sure, he was a nice guy, and I'd already told him what I was planning to do and he approved the idea, but I'd have to put an awful lot of work in to get somebody interested in skateboarding who couldn't tell the difference between a nosegrab and a nosegrind.

And now I was starting to talk like Anna. Just add that to the growing pile of things I'd need to worry about in the coming weeks.

Since college had finished up for the summer, I'd be expected to make an appearance to my parents more often now, if nothing more than to let them see I was still alive and eating properly. Not that it was a baseless fear of theirs, towards the end of my first year, I really let everything get the better of me and I'd rather not say how long I went without eating something not from a paper container. Summer of 2012 had not been a fun time for tubby little recluse Elsa to work off all the excess pudge.

After working through the list of edits I'd have to make for several hours at a snail's pace, I decided to call it quits for the time being. Looking at the analogue clock on the wall, I absently wondered if it were twelve hours or twenty-four since I'd first sat down to work on my version of the film. Either way, I figured some sleep was long overdue, so I, too tired to even get up, pushed myself on my wheeled chair from my desk to the foot of my bed and clambered on. I didn't stop to change into my sleepwear. In fact, I was so out of it I wasn't sure if I'd even changed out of them the past morning, so I could have been in my pyjamas as far as I knew. I was able to send Anna a quick text, something along the lines of "this project is kicking my ass". It probably came out a lot more garbled than that since I could hardly keep my eyes open to look at the thing. After I (hopefully) hit send, I chucked my phone to the end of the bed and passed out.

Only to be woken not an hour later by a distinctly warm, lumpy, moving thing landing across my stomach. Through bleary eyes I caught a flash of red. Well, shoot.

" Elsa wake up!" she chirped. Fuck she was in one of those moods. Probably high or something. I tried, unsuccessfully to push her off me.

"Go away Anna, you butt I was asleep..." I grunted, elbowing her side to try to get her to move. In my near drunk state, there wasn't a lot of power behind it, so Anna just brushed it off and continued trying to get me up.

"But Elsa! The sky's awake, so I'm awake, so we have to play!" she insisted. She moved to straddle me and began poking at my sides.

"Play what? Go play by yourself..." I threw an arm across my face to block out the light. Anna wasn't going any time soon, so I decided I'd best get used to it and try to catch a bit of shut-eye anyway.

"But Elsaaaaaa..." I could feel her face getting dangerously close to my ear, her breath tickling it as she exhaled, "I wanna play with you."

I sighed and removed the hand from my face. I turned my head to face her so she was no longer so deliciously close to my ear. I met her eyes. Her pupils were huge.

"Anna, you're high. Leave me along or I'll call the cops on you," I warned. I was so irritable I might have actually made true on that threat.

"Okie-dokie," she said, pushing herself off me, "I'm gonna go sit on the couch and make sure nobody kidnaps my Elsie."

"Don't call me Elsie," I mumbled, turning around to bury my face in my pillow and electing to ignore the adjective pronoun of 'my' she threw in.

"Sure thing, Elsa-kins." I just grunted at her in response, too fatigued to manage any coherent speech. She started cackling manically as she closed over the bedroom door when she went into the main living area.

Peace at last.

* * *

Peace at last lasted for about three hours before the incessant banging at my bedroom door became too much. I'd pulled my pillow over my head hoping to block it out, but evidently, Anna did not take kindly to being ignored and after about ten minutes of polite tapping had started whacking so hard against it, I was half afraid she'd eventually put her whole fist through the door.

Still trying to delay the inevitable, I reached over the side of my bed to grab my shoe and I chucked it at the door with a thunk. The knocking hesitated for a moment, and I allowed my hopes to rise before they were dashed when the knocking started up once again with renewed vigour.

"For fuck's sake Anna!" I yelled, finally having been pushed over the edge, "I haven't slept properly for days! What have you got against a good night's sleep?" I all but screamed at her through the wooden barrier. The knocking finally stopped, but for whatever reason I started to feel guilty. This guilt was immediately quashed when Anna's next words reached my ears.

"Do you wanna build a snowman?"

I sat up and stared at the door, not believing if I'd actually heard her correctly. A quick glance out my window to the bone-dry pavements of Los Angeles served only to confuse me further.

"What?" I asked her, to make sure.

"Do you wanna build a snowman?" she repeated.

"Anna," I started, rising off my bed. I stomped over to the door, trying not to stumble in my sleep-depraved state over the various dirty clothes, books, and miscellaneous items which had accumulated on my floor the past few days, and swing it open with force, "do you have a death-wish or are you really just that imprudent?" I growled at her. The smell from the front room hit me a moment after I'd removed the barrier between us. "Have you been smoking marijuana in my home?" she only shrugged in response.

"Who cares? It's snowing on TV, so I thought it would be cool to build a snowman."

"Anna, don't change the subject, I will not have you using illicit substances on my property. Also, it's seventy-five degrees out there, what exactly are you planning on making this snowman out of?"

"Jesus El, it's just weed, don't get your panties in a twist," she chuckled and looked at my attire, "are you even wearing panties right now I wonder?" Okay that was the final straw.

"Out."

"What?"

"Anna get out. I need to sleep, or I'm going to do something I'll probably regret later, and you need to sober up or whatever, so just go away. And I'm confiscating your key, so don't get any ideas." I really wished I hadn't given her my spare key, it was sheer laziness on my part. Anna would pop in so often I got a little sick of constantly answering the door, something I had not had to exercise in recent years, with school work taking over my life, so I just decided to give her the spare key, since nobody else was using it.

Without giving her a chance to respond, I pulled her around so she was facing the front door, and I started pushing her towards it. She flailed her arms sluggishly in protest, the high lessening her motor skills, but it wasn't all that hard to get her there. I left her a moment to open the door, but before I could push her all the way out she turned to me suddenly.

"What would you do that you might regret?" she drawled, her native Kentucky dialect slipping through slightly, something that only happened when she was drinking. If I looked to my fridge I'd probably find it devoid of any alcoholic beverages.

"I don't know," I grunted, trying to push her out. She was more actively resisting now that she realised how close she was to the door, "kiss you or something," I mumbled off-handedly.

What?

"What?" she echoed my thoughts.

Nice going numbnuts.

"Nothing! Just go, go on, get out, the door is right there," I rushed, trying to cover my slip. I gave her a few more shoves, but now that she was curious about what I had said, she'd planted her feet firmly and wouldn't budge.

"Nope," she turned to face me, "you wanna kiss me?"

"No, yes, I don't know, I just really want you to leave I'm too tired for this."

"Haha, you liiiiiiike me," she sang.

"I'm not so sure of that right now."

"No you like-like me," she poked my collarbone, "I totally caught you staring at my butt last week."

"You were imagining things."

"Whatever," she shrugged and finally turned to leave. She was almost out the door when she paused to say over her shoulder, "denial is the first stage of...something, I think. I dunno," she shrugged again before finally removing herself from my apartment. I quickly slammed the door shut behind her, and winced, feeling rude.

Moving past this, I thought back on my words to her. In my foggy state I'd totally slipped up. While I had accepted the fact that I had feelings for Anna, I wasn't quite ready to act on them. And even if I was, would they be reciprocated? I knew she liked girls, she'd mentioned it when we first met, but that didn't necessarily mean she liked me. But the thought of me wanting to kiss her hadn't seemed to bother her. But she was also high and little drunk so maybe she was just too buzzed to care. Or what if...

I shook my head to get rid of the thoughts running churning around in my mind. I still needed to catch up on some much-needed sleep. I'd figure this out later.

Trudging back to my room, and stumbling more than once on the same pair of jeans that had been carelessly tossed directly in my path, I collapsed onto bed for what I hoped would be the final time today.

Just as I could feel myself drifting off, my phone buzzed on the table beside my bed. I was tempted to ignore it, but I feared if it was Anna, she might come storming back in if I tried to brush her off. I sighed and snatched it up. There was a new message and speak of the devil.

Anna: oh yeah forgot to mention I got the sponsorship from oaken

…

This girl was going to be the death of me.

* * *

Later that day, after I'd finally managed to get some shut-eye, I'd agreed to meet Anna outside Oaken's, where she'd enthusiastically grabbed my hand and dragged me inside to introduce me to her sponsor. The man inside, Oaken, was quite possibly the largest single piece of human I'd ever seen and it was a wonder how he even managed to squeeze through the front door of the shop every morning to get to work.

With pleasant wave and an unexpectedly high-pitched "yoo hoo!" Oaken had given us a tour of the shop. He congratulated me on my camera skills, saying it was some of the best amateur footage he'd ever received. Well he had me won over. I'm sure he'd won Anna over the second he'd told her he was going to sponsor her.

She flitted excitedly from one side of the shop to another, browsing through everything. Anna really didn't need a tour. I had it figured that if she wasn't skating, working or hanging out with me, she was probably here, pestering Oaken. Well it seemed it had finally paid off.

"Hey," she said, suddenly latching onto my arm out of nowhere, "help me pick a new deck."

"A what?"

"A deck. For my new board. Oaken said he'd let me get a new board every month if I needed it during the sponsorship," she paused, finally dawning on her from the blank look on my face that I actually had no clue what a deck was. "Oh right, the deck is the wooden part of the board. The one with the picture." Well now it made sense why she was asking for my opinion on something this important. It really wasn't all that important.

"Oh, ja. We have some new designs in just this week," Oaken informed us. He walked over to a wall covered in decks on display and plucked one off, "we put the new Element Chromatic series out just this morning," he handed it to Anna, who gazed in wonder. He pulled out another, "or here we have a reissue of the Powell-Peralta classic Hawk design."

"Hey Elsa," Anna said to grab my attention, "wanna build a snowman?" she asked, pointing up near the top as she did. There, looking a little out of place between all the grungy, in-your-face designs, was a light blue board with stylised snowflakes decorating it.

"Ah, yes," Oaken said with a tone of approval. He reached up to grab it (being the only one of us tall enough to actually reach it) and handed it to Anna who gazed in wonder. "The Landscape Kinloch Snowflakes reissue. It's the one of the few I actually ordered in. Hasn't sold too well, feel free to take it."

Anna didn't speak only nodded, still looking at the deck.

"It reminds me of you," she suddenly piped.

"What?"

"The design. For some reason it reminds me of you. I like it," she said with a tone of finality, "right, I'll go pick out my trucks and play with griptape. I wouldn't think you'd be interested in that," she remarked.

"That's fine, there's a few shots I'd like to get for my film anyway, so I'll just...be around," I told her. She nodded and went off with Oaken as I left the shop. As I was going out, I wasn't really watching where I was going and I crashed into a body and lost my footing, falling backwards. I braced myself for an impact that never came. Instead, the stranger had grabbed my hand before I could hit the ground. In the commotion, I'd squeezed my eyes shut, so I opened them to take in the man I'd walked into.

"Whoa there, you all right? I'm so sorry," he said.

"No, no, I'm sorry. I wasn't watching where I was going, I'm fine," I told him, avoiding his eyes by brushing some imaginary dust off my shirt. When I did look at his face, the first thing that struck me was his sideburns. I knew I wasn't much one for beards, or men in general for that matter, but I could still appreciate a nice set of chops. His eyes were soft when I finally looked into them.

"Well thank goodness for that," he whispered. I wondered if Anna had noticed and was looking at us. Before I could turn my head to find out, he pulled me up so I was standing on my own and introduced himself, "I'm Hans, Hans Prince."

* * *

**Blah blah blah. I have a few things to say about this chapter, so just click the **_Dogtown_** link on my tumblr page. They are interesting things, read them, I clarify things there instead of boosting my word count in A/Ns**

**In case you somehow missed it my url is **_bewareofthefrozenhearts_

**Also we have over 200 follows and an amount of reviews I never expected to reach so thanks again everyone. I might start addressing individual reviews at some point if I get time so yeah if you have questions or any thing PM me or ask on tumblr.**


	8. Prince of Douchebaggery

**Wow you guys really don't like Hans.**

* * *

"I'm Hans, Hans Prince."

I stared at him before it occurred to me the polite thing to do would be to introduce myself.

"Oh right" I said grasping the hand he had once again stretched out in offer of a handshake, "I'm Elsa, Elsa Arendelle."

"Arendelle? Sounds familiar..." he mused.

"So I've heard," I played it off. I didn't need another skater asking to trash the hotel garden. Anna had been bad enough.

"Are you new to L.A? I haven't seen you around here before, and I know most of the people that well, associate with Oaken's." Oh God he was trying to make conversation. Play nice Els.

"Um, no actually, I've lived here my whole life. I'm just here with my friend," I looked over my shoulder to Anna, who I found to have abandoned the board building in favour sending Hans a steady pointed glare, "do you two know each other?"

Hans' previously soft gaze suddenly turned harsh when he saw I was here with Anna.

"I didn't realise the company you keep, Miss Arendelle. If you'll excuse me, I have some things to discuss with Oaken," he brushed past me and headed to the door of the shop labelled "Staff Only", threw it open and slammed it shut, causing the decks on the wall to rattle slightly with the force. I looked to Anna, hoping for an explanation and she gestured for me to come over.

Oaken had vanished into the back of the shop after Hans, apologising to Anna and leaving her to her own devices. When I reached her at the workbench, it appeared she had already almost completed building her new board.

"Care to tell me about your friend?"

She scoffed when I used the term "friend".

"Friend is the last thing I'd call that two-faced dickwad," she spat with malice I hadn't heard her use since that first day we'd met, when she accused her previous cameraman of being a pervert. "He's such a self-absorbed ass I can't believe we..." she trailed off.

"You..?" I prompted.

"Never mind, it's not important," she brushed me off, "all you need to know is, if he was acting nice to you, it just means he wants something from you. Judging from that look he gave you, it's probably that," she pointed to my breasts. I flushed and went to cross my arms over them before remembering the only one here was Anna, and I didn't have to feel uneasy around her.

"Oh well, then I'm glad you're around to protect me my dear knight in tatty jeans and snapbacks," I quipped. She gave a half-hearted smile and returned to her board, working quickly. Whoever this Hans guy was to Anna, he must have really upset her. I decided then that Hans Prince, for all his apparently charming personality, was not a person I would like to associate with. I wondered if Hans and Anna's sour relationship was anything to do with how cold she acted back when I first met her in the skatepark. It still astounded me how she and I had gotten so close in just over two short months.

Anna snapped me out of my thoughts by almost hitting me in the face with her now-completed board.

"Let's go bring this baby for a test-run!" she exclaimed as she grabbed my wrist and pulled me out the door. It was a glorious day in downtown L.A., evidenced by the tourists that flocked the pavements with their cameras and their backpacks that looked more appropriate for a hiker scaling a mountain. Anna pushed through the crowds, earning a few words of warning from the tourists, and warranting a few apologies from me. When we reached a slightly less crowded area, just a few people mulling about, Anna stopped, a little out of breath. I chuckled at her predicament, and she just grinned manically at me. She grabbed the front of my checked shirt (one I had robbed from her, I just realised) and pulled me close to her so she wouldn't have too speak up, and whispered in my ear.

"You see how all those guys are just so absorbed in their own little bubble? How that statue me and you pass by almost every day is the most interesting thing in the world? That's what people want. Something new, something exciting. They've probably seen that stature before, in other pictures, you know?" She paused for a second and dropped her board to the ground. I wondered where she was going with this. "But not me. So, what's a good way for a newly-sponsored amateur skater to gain some buzz for herself? Give the people exactly what they want. Something new." She finished her little speech to me before kicking off on her board in the direction of one of the crowds gathered around the statue she had mentioned.

It wasn't really a statue, per say, more of some kind of monument of modern art. I hadn't ever really taken the time to notice it before, as Anna had said. I thought it was nothing spectacular. But looking at it now, I could see why she was so interested. Beside it was a little flower box with sloped sides. The piece of art itself was fairly ordinary-looking. It was some kind of fountain with and oddly shaped top. The important thing about this top though, is the the space the water was coming through was just a narrow strip. Perfect for grinding.

When people noticed Anna, they parted slightly, curious to she what she was about to do. Lined herself up with the flower box and the fountain and pushed off the ground several times to build up speed. When she was going fast enough, the stopped kicking and let herself go up one side of the flower box, using it as a kicker to get in the air. Now in the air, she landed on the top of the fountain where she did a...she showed it to me before...Darkslide, I think. She flipped the board upside-down so she was sliding on the grip tape. The force of the grind caused water to splash from the fountain and onto some awestruck, and probably now disgruntled, tourists. I saw a few of them with their cameras trained on her, as I had done the moment I figured out what it was she was planning to do.

She finished the trick by jumping off at the end of the fountain and managing not to land on any observers. I ran over to her and excitedly congratulated her. She smiled at me, ignoring the witnesses who wanted to know more about her. I knew the only way anyone was going to hear about her was to get her name, so I yelled over them.

"Her name's Anna Summers and she's going to be appearing at this year's Tampa AM skating contest!"

My yelling seemed to knock Anna out of her reprieve and she turned to wave at the crowd before bolting in the opposite direction. I knew the drill by now, and I followed after her. Most objects outside of a skate park weren't even allowed to be skated on, let alone something like that fountain. So any time we'd successfully nailed a trick, we'd immediately run from the scene of the probable crime.

After a few minutes of running, Anna seemed satisfied we were far away enough and stopped just outside a café.

"I know it's pretty hot out but..." she trailed of and jabbed in the direction of the shop with her thumb.

"It's never too hot for coffee," I told her. This time I was the one to grab her wrist and drag her inside, albeit with a lot less fervour than she usually did. As she took a seat and hid her board under the table, I went to order coffee. Pausing for a moment, a scolded myself in neglecting to ask what Anna's coffee order was. Hoping that her love of chocolate extended to coffee, I ordered two mochas and took them back to the table. She took a large gulp of her coffee and gagged. I was worried I'd gotten her something she'd despised when the actual problem was...

"Hot, hot, hot!" she gasped, and started fanning her tongue. The sheer ridiculousness of the situation made me laugh.

"Well of course it's hot you buffoon, it's coffee."

"Yeah, but it's far too hot...kind of like you," she regained her composure as she said that last part and wiggled her eyebrows at me.

"Really, you're hitting on me now?"

"I like to live dangerously," she took another, more cautious sip of her coffee, "but really, you're hot, I'm hella rad. We should have hella hot love children," she remarked casually. I almost choked on my drink at that.

"What?" I yelled. I attempted to speak beyond that but probably just gave a very good impression of a fish, at which she laughed.

"I'm kidding, jeez, don't have a...an anerism?"

"Aneurysm."

"Yeah, that thing," she mumbled, "you're way better than me at the whole words thing. I guess you should be, college student and everything," she chuckled and scratched the back of her head, "kinda makes me wonder why you're still hanging out with somebody like me. I'm probably a really bad influence or something, right?"

"Probably, yes. But you know something? I like to live dangerously," her smile returned with that and we finished our drinks. When we did, we had an unspoken agreement not to leave, mostly because it was quite hot outside, and the café had air conditioning.

"I have an idea," Anna started, "we know a lot about eachother, but there's a few things. Little things. Say, I don't know your favourite colour. We should play twenty questions," I nodded in agreement, "okay, I'll go first. What is your favourite colour?"

"White."

"White? That's not even a colour Elsa, it's white."

"It is too a colour, in fact, it's every colour. What's yours?"

"Fine, whatever. Mine's green."

"How come."

"It kind of reminds me of home, I guess. That totally counted as your question by the way, so it's my turn again. Is that your natural hair colour?"

"Ah...yes. I'm suprised you haven't asked before, lots of others have. It's actually not my natural colour. I'm brunette, really, same as my mom. When I was in highschool though, my friend Ariel wanted to dye her hair bright red, so we had to bleach it first. Except her dad didn't know we were doing it, so I helped her do it at my house and while I was getting the stuff ready, Ariel knocked over the dish with the bleach on it and loads of it got in my hair. So it was all patchy and everything, and we just decided to bleach the whole lot, and it looked nice, so I kept it," I recalled the story. Usually, when somebody asked that question, I'd just reply with something non-commitial, like I just got bored one day and decided to do it. "So what about you?" I reached over to her hair and tugged lightly on a blonde streak I hadn't noticed until abot a week ago under her various hats, "what's this all about?"

"Oh," she brushed my hand off and flattened the now out-of place streak, "I was born with it. But I dreamt I was kissed by a troll," she added as an afterthought.

"Fascinating," I mumbled.

"Hey, you were the one that asked!" she said, smacking my arm lightly when I laughed.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. Let's continue this conversation somewhere else, the barista is glaring at us." Anna nodded and retrieved her board from beneath the table. She offered an arm to me and we linked elbows. We walked around for a bit, proceeding with our game of twenty questions. I learned a few things about her I didn't know I wanted to know, but I was glad she told me anyway. Eventually, the heat become too much and we need to escape indoors somewhere.

"We can go to my place. It's closer and it can be pretty cold anyway." Without giving me a chance to answer, Anna pulled me in the direction of what I assumed was her apartment. I'd never actually been, but she said it was quite close to the centre of the town, and a badly converted loft. After about fifteen minutes of half-running, Anna dragged me inside a building that looked less like a bunch of apartments and more like a warehouse. We stepped into a rickety looking elevator that I wouldn't trust as far as I could throw it, and got out on the top floor. Anna pulled out a key and twisted it in the door until it clicked. She turned with a warning look on her face.

"Okay, so it's a mess, but it's not my mess, it's Kristoff's. And it smells, also Kristoff's. And-"

"Anna, I'm sure it's fine," I said, nudging the door open.

"No I-"

"Anna, it's okay," I went inside, and was immediately ambushed by a pile of wriggling, writhing fur.

"I was going to warn you about the dog..."

* * *

**It's short, late and pointless. Sorry about that. I'm going to address a few reviews now. I wanted to do it sooner, but never got around to it.**

**Dakadakara: **Yes as a matter of fact I have been edged by one of those hunks of wood and it hurt like a motherfucker.**Y**

**FlushedFox: **We'll see what happens to Elsa eventually. It's all going to be very angsty, which I'm currently trying to keep on the down-low.

**Celery Sticks: **I replied to your review before, but I don't know if you got it. Anyway, we'll definitely be seeing more about Anna, but it'll all be gradual.

**EvilMyAss: **I was very tempted to get Elsa drunk, but I knew that from the beginning, I didn't just want the two girls macking from the start. I want some build up.

**Reflectedd and blues: I**'m very aware of the parallels between this story and the Tony Hawks games. It's not surprising, really, seeing as I was more-or-less inspired to write this while playing THAW. I'm trying to keep the plot away from it, but I can't help some similarities.

**bawesome: **The characterizations are quite different from canon, but I'm writing this with both of their AU backstories in mind. They've been affected by different events in their lives than canon Anna and Elsa, so it makes sense that they'd be a little different, but I'm still trying to retain their main essences.

**lesbinope: **I think so. Both of them definitely have either or both tattoos and piercings, though I haven't quite decided where yet. It'll be revealed during later...ahem...events...

**ArtemisXD: **I've addressed this both in PM and on my tumblr, but if anyone else as the same aversion, just contact me and I'll explain.

**lauraknatt: **Again, as above.

**Several Reviewers: **I'm not going to give too much away, but there will **NOT** be a love triangle with Hans calm your pits.

**And thank you everyone else for you kind words of support. Each an every review makes my day a little better, and encourages me to keep writing.**

**Check out the Dogtown link on my tumblr for links and stuff for this chapter.**


	9. A Bit of a Fixer-Upper

"I was going to warn you about the dog."

I tried, unsucessfully to push the great, furry beast off me, when a low whistle came from inside Anna's loft.

"Sven, down boy!" The dog, Sven it seemed, obeyed immediately, and ran toward the voice inside, which emerged in the form of a hulking blond man. So of course, the first words out of my mouth when I saw this giant were,

"You named your dog after your skating guru?" The man threw his head back in laughter, and Anna looked on the scene, blushing slightly.

"It's a long story," he said, offering me a hand up, "name's Kristoff. And you're Elsa?" he asked, pulling me up after I grabbed his hand.

"Well yeah, but I have to say, it's a little weird that you know that."

"How could I not? Feisty-pants over here just can't stop talking about you," he told me while pulling Anna under his arm and proceeded to noogie her. She flailed helplessly until he released her and she backhanded his arm.

"Ow!"

"Kristoff!"

"Oh that's right, you wanted me to keep quiet about that. Sorry," he said unapologetically, "don't worry Elsa, all good things. And jeez, she told me you were hot but-"

"Kristoff!" Anna yelled for the second time in a few minutes, this time reaching up on her tiptoes to cover the man's mouth. She gave me a nervous smile, almost like she expected me to be mad or freaking out, but I just found the whole affair highly amusing. She visibly relaxed once she saw me smiling, and gradually removed her hand from Kristoff's face, who inhaled dramatically as though Anna's hand had cut off his oxygen.

"All right, I was just about to head out to work, if you'll excuse me ladies? I'm sure you'll want the place yourselves anyway-"

"Okay! Kristoff, that's enough from you," she moved behind him and started pushing him out the door, "see you later and all that crack. Say bye Elsa!"

"Bye, Elsa," I teased. She gave me a hard look, and Kristoff laughed again.

"Oh I like her. Keep this one, would you?" He chuckled.

"Kristoff, out!" She was shoving him with her shoulder now instead of just her hands for more force, desperate to be rid of him.

"All right, all right, I'm gone!" He pulled up suddenly, causing Anna, whose full body weight had been leaning against him a moment ago, to lose her balance and almost fall flat on her face, but I managed to throw my arms out so she landed across them. Kristoff threw us a wink before getting into the elevator and shutting the door. Save for the rattling of the machine, all was silent for a few minutes until Anna started shifting around on my arms.

"Uh Els, not that I don't enjoy it or anything, but your hand is on my boob."

* * *

We were seated on her couch, a cold beer sat on the coffee table in front of us. Maybe table was the wrong word for the wooden crate that looked like it would collapse at any minute, but right now it was doing its job. The beer belonged to Kristoff, but Anna insisted if we just took one, he wouldn't notice. Living life on the edge sure feels good.

Her home was scarcely furnished, it had a television, but it was a tiny thing I'd probably need my glasses to see properly. There was a dog bed in one corner, which looked brand-new, probably since the dog obviously didn't use it. He'd instead placed himself on the sofa beside Anna, and was curled up into her. Was it okay to be jealous of a mutt? Apart from that, it was similar to my apartment in that it was very open-plan, with a banged-up fridge in one corner with a few bits off wood drilled into the red brick wall serving as counters to make a kitchen area, and three doors leading off into a bathroom, and two bedrooms. It was cold, which I was grateful for, but then again, I always preferred the cold anyway.

"So it's a bit of a fixer-upper, but it's home," she mumbled when she noticed me looking around.

"I like it, it kind of reminds me of you."

"How?"

"Well, the exposed red-brick is kind of harsh, but homey? If that makes any sense. And you've got all this makeshift furniture, so even if it's a bit rough around the edges, it still works. There's no posters or pictures though, and I was expecting-"

"Oh, all my posters and stuff are in my room. Wanna see?" I nodded affirmative, and she leapt up and grabbed my hand to pull me over to one of the bedrooms, Sven following excitedly on our heels. "All right, welcome to Chez Anna!" she said, throwing the door open and letting me walk in before closing the door, and thus keeping the dog out.

The room was by no means small, but it just had so much stuff crammed into it that it looked positively tiny. There was a queen-sized bed against one wall, unmade, and propped up on cinder blocks. A CD rack was drilled into the wall by a large stereo, and apparently old thing that had a place for vinyl records. There were clothes, everywhere but the wardrobe, which had it's doors thrown open, exposing Anna's battered skateboard collection to the world, which seemed to have taken up home in there. The walls were still redbrick, as out in the main section of the loft, but these one were almost completely covered in either posters of graffiti art.

"Did you do this yourself?" I asked, pointing at a particularly intricate snowflake done with spray paint. Her eyes bulged and she grabbed wrist to stop me touching it.

"Yeah, I did all this stuff, this is the latest one. I was working on it this morning, so it might still be wet," she kept a hold on my wrist and led me to the bed. She hastily straightened out her sheets, and gestured for me to sit. She lowered herself beside me.

"You're really talented, you know." She blushed at the compliment.

"Uh thanks. Nobody's really seen my stuff except Kristoff, and I don't really go around tagging, or anything, I don't want to get involved in any kind of art war with any of those gangs by accident. You know there was a time," she was about to launch into a story, I could tell by her tone of voice, "back when I didn't know you could make a career out of skating, I wanted to be an artist. My dad never cared much for it, he never cared much for anything I did except get good grades, but my mom," she sighed, "my mom loved it. She encouraged it, she'd buy me stuff all the time, and she'd go on trips with her friends to really beautiful places, and she'd always bring me back pictures," she reached over to a drawer by her bed, and pulled out an old shoebox. Removing the lid revealed several photographs of scenery from lush green forests to harsh golden deserts and everything in between. She rummaged around the box a bit before pulling out a photo of a tundra, "this was always my favourite. See it's all white and blues at the top, but then it gradually goes to greenish yellow to golden reds!" Her eyes were alight in fascination, her love of the scene evident in them.

"Gorgeous," I breathed, but I wasn't looking at the picture. Our heads were close, I noted. If we both turned to face each other, we'd almost be kissing.

"What?" she turned her head to me, we were inches away from each other. "Oh..."

And then suddenly her lips were pressed against mine, and we were kissing.

* * *

**This chapter is disgustingly short and late, but I wanted to end it there.**

**So they kissed!**

**Heh...all y'all think this is just fluff...*maniacal laughter***

**I was busy writing other stuff *cough* Assassin's Creed AU *cough* and I finally hit 100 followers on my tumblr! So I'm willing to write some celebratory fluff for the occasion. I need a prompt though so...**

**Cover image courtesy of the (wickedly talented) Keiladelobo on tumblr! Give her a follow.**


	10. Very Serious Affairs

It took a minute for the reality of what we were doing to hit me. And when it did, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I pulled away with a quiet gasp. I was about to speak when Anna started rambling.

"Shit, Elsa I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have, I mean, I didn't even know if you like girls, let alone me, but you were right there and I just kind of lost myself in the moment, and I totally get if that's not your thing, and I've just screwed up everything between us," she rambled.

"Anna it's okay," I tried, but she continued on.

"-and I totally value your friendship. Like so much. You know you're the first real girl-friend I've had? Not, _girl_friend, girl-friend, like friends and...wait what?"

"I said," I put a hand under her chin and place a short kiss on her cheek to comfort her, "it's okay. I was just a bit...shocked."

"Shocked?" She echoed, disbelievingly.

"Shocked." I repeated before placing another quick peck on her cheek.

"Oh, okay," she took a second to digest the information, "okay, okay, I ah...what did you think...of the...kiss?"

I grinned at her obvious discomfort at the whole situation. God damn this girl is too cute.

"I liked it. How about you?" she gave me an odd sideways glance. I continued to smile at her, hoping to keep her from retreating to some dark corner of the room under a pile of hazardously-stacked clothes. She began to return my smile after a few seconds passed.

"I liked it too," she murmured, looking down to my hand that I had on the bed to lean on. She put her hand over mine, "so uh...what does this mean, now?" She looked into my eyes, hope hardly concealed behind her own. It made me want to keep from saying my next words.

"Anna, I, I've never been in a relationship, I told you before, when we first met. And don't get me wrong, I like you, like, like-like you," I scoffed at my own use of the word, "but I'm not sure if I'm ready for anything serious, if we were to try something," I had looked away from her as I said this, but when I looked back, the hope in her eyes hadn't dimmed.

"Well," she began. Now gripping my hand tighter, she stood up, and tugged my arm to bring me up too. "It's a good thing I'm not a serious person." She released my hand and grabbed an empty backpack the floor, and began picking up and shaking her paint cans, and either putting them down again or dropping them into her bag. She ducked down under the bed, and came back with gloves and a beanie. She shoved the beanie onto my head, and I winced as she accidentally tugged some of my hair.

"Sorry," she said, continuing to pull the hat down.

"What are you doing?" I questioned once she turned away to shove a few rags into her bag, along with something that looked like a notebook.

"Showing you how not serious I am! Come on it's getting late."

* * *

We ran from Anna's place across several blocks. Every day since I met Anna I'd given thanks at least once for my fitness. As she had pointed out, it was getting late, nearing seven, and soon it would be dark. She was running a few steps ahead of me, so when she finally stopped, I almost ran into her.

"Christ Anna-"

"Shh" she cut me off, peering into the alleyway we'd stopped by. Once she was satisfied with...something, she went closer and gestured for me to come into the alley with her. She pulled the bag from her back and crouched down to open it. She pulled out the notebook-looking thing, and several cans of spray paint, along with two sets of gloves and a bandanna. She passed the notebook off to me, and a pair of gloves, and she busied herself with tying the bandanna around the bottom half of her face. As she was doing this, I opened up the book in my hands to find it was not a notebook, but a sketchbook, filled with gorgeous drawings of scenery, and people, and some of them were just colours thrown at a page, and others were meticulously detailed and drawn.

"Wow," I whispered, mostly to myself, but she heard anyway.

"What?" her voice was slightly muffled by the cloth across her mouth, and frowning, she tugged it down so it rested around her neck.

"These are amazing!" She shrugged as a response.

"They're okay. Flick to the last drawing for a sec," she commanded, standing up and looking in at the book over my shoulder, "there, stop," she said as I almost flicked past it. It was another drawing of a snowflake, but this one was a lot less neat. It was sloppier than the one in her room, and the lines thinner, but it was set on a background of what looked like blue and purple paint splatters. I ran a finger over it. "Water colours," she informed me. She gave it an intense gaze before returning to her back to pull out a few more cans.

"I thought you said you didn't do street art?"

"I said I don't go around tagging. 'Sides, nobody's claimed this spot since the last painter got thrown in the slammer."

"You're not worried about that?" I raised an eyebrow at her as she returned to check the painting.

"Nah, dude got busted for child molestation, not here," she spurted once she saw the horrified look on my face, "some place else, but the feds were keeping a close eye on the place for a while. There was no evidence of anything, so they packed it in. Dunno why nobody's ever tried to take this spot though. What I'm doing isn't really street art anyway."

"Oh no?"

"Nope. It's more of a community service," she said, gesturing to the wall, which I hadn't really looked at. It seemed to be some testament to the over-glorified male sex organ, having many of them painted crudely onto it.

"I see..." I said, slightly put off. Anna laughed at my disgusted expression.

"And people wonder why I bat for the other team," she said pulling up the bandanna other her mouth again, "there's another one in the bag if you want it, and you wanna make sure all that hair is tucked under that hat. This stuff gets in my hair, it's a nightmare, gotta get it all oily and shit, I can't imagine what it'd be like for you."

Heeding her warning, I made sure all my hair was tucked in, and took a step back so I wouldn't be inhaling the brunt of the chemicals. She set to work in a manic and seemingly random pattern, throwing on a messy layer of dark blue, before switching to purples, and then to light blues, and back to a bit of dark blue here, silver there and some white in one part. She'd glance down at the pad I'd placed on the ground beside her before she'd started, and she'd switch her colours after a few moments' scrutiny.

I kept an eye out for passers-by, but anybody who did walk by seemed pretty hesitant about getting involved in the affairs of the uncouth youth of California.

Thanks to the speed of the painting, Anna was almost done the background for it in under two hours. Apart from glaring at civilians, I'd busied myself with my thoughts. Thoughts about the kiss, about what it meant for us now. I'd meant what I said about not being ready for a relationship, but at the same time, I didn't exactly not want to be kissing Anna, and with everything I had coming up, the deadline for my film, my parents visiting...wait. My parents visiting?

"Fuck!" I exclaimed. Anna dropped the can she was currently holding in surprise at my outburst, and it clattered to the ground.

"What, did I screw it up?" She asked, panicked, quickly glancing from me to the sketch to the wall and back again several times.

"No, no, my uh...my parents are going to be back in town. They called me last week to say it. I'd totally forgotten until just there."

"Well when are they coming?" She asked, picking the can back up and throwing it into her bag, while peeling her gloves off and returning them to the bag with the cans of paint.

"They're flying in from Chicago tonight, and they want to meet with me for lunch tomorrow."

"Oh, but tomorrow is-"

"Ice-cream day, I know, I'm sorry, I should have told you, but it totally slipped my mind," I apologised sincerely. Since that first time I'd brought Anna to Marshmallow's ice-cream place, she'd decided it would become a tradition where we got ice-cream at least once a week and sat out on the curb counting cars. I'd count the blue ones and she'd count the red ones, and whoever got the most would pay for the next lot of ice-cream. Ice-cream day was honestly becoming my favourite day of the week.

"It's okay," she gave me a half-smile. I could see she was disappointed, but not mad, "you want me to tag along or...?"

"It would...probably be best you didn't. My parents can be a little...conservative."

"Oh, I see..." she trailed off, frowning.

"Not that I'm ashamed of you, or whatever it is I'm feeling for you, but I think I'd like to figure it out myself first before I let them know."

"Oh, yeah, no I totally get it," she chuckled, picking up her bag and slinging it over one shoulder, "we never did really discuss that by the way. What you're feeling."

"You were supposed to show me how not-serious you are, or something."

"Oh yeah, what time is it?"

"Uh..." I pulled out my phone, ignoring the missed call from my father, "almost ten."

"Cool," she nodded, "let's go to Chuck E. Cheese."

* * *

**Look it's on time! Look it's short! Sorry...**

**I'll post the design of Anna's graffiti-snowflake on my tumblr, tagged under skater-au.**

**I'm going to sleep now, tired author is tired. If you find mistakes guys, PM me and let me know (there were a heckton in the last chapter, I'll fix them tomorrow)**


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